ACCESSING THE INTERNET FROM THE KEYBOARD BY JOHN WILSON Volume 2 COPYRIGHT 2006 ******** TABLE OF CONTENTS (To find a particular section or heading, use your word- processor's or editor's search facility, e.g. type ">section 6" to find that section. Ensure that you precede the word section with the greater than sign (>), which is the capitalised full stop, to be certain to find the relevant section first time and not any earlier reference to it. Type the string "What are Cookies?" or the specific paragraph number of 3.4.1. to find that sub-heading. Additionally, all main sections are separated by a centred row of eight asterisks.) Foreword and Restrictions Available Manual Formats Target Group Conventions Suggested Approaches for Effective Learning with this Tutorial Section 1: Introduction 1.1. What this Tutorial does and does not Cover 1.2. JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Special Web Page Navigation Hot Keys 1.2.1. JAWS 4.0, 4.5, 5 and 6 1.2.2. HAL 5, 6 and 6.5 1.2.3. Window-Eyes 4.2, 4.5 and 5 1.2.4. Windows Operating System Shortcuts Section 2: HELPFUL TIPS AND CUSTOMISATION 2.1. Twenty Customisation and Other Tips Section 3: Internet Shopping 3.1. General Overview 3.2. Security Issues 3.2.1. Secure HTTP Websites 3.2.2. Ensuring that Your Online Transaction Details are Not Automatically Saved to Disk 3.3. UK Consumer Home Shopping Rights 3.4. Cookies and Spyware 3.4.1. What are Cookies? 3.4.2. Accepting or Rejecting Legitimate Cookies and Controlling them via Internet Explorer 3.4.3. Exporting and Importing Your Desirable Cookies for Use on another Computer 3.4.3.1. Saving/Exporting Cookies 3.4.3.2. Importing or Restoring Cookies to a Browser 3.5. Description of Typical Online Shopping Store Purchase Forms 3.6. Shopping Online--Three Step by Step Practical Examples of Making a Purchase with General Screenreaders to Work Through 3.6.1. The UK Cobolt Systems Products for the Blind Site 3.6.2. The Special Tesco Access Grocery Shopping Site 3.6.2.1. Introduction and General Information 3.6.2.2. Registering Yourself for Tesco Online Shopping 3.6.2.3. Shopping on the Tesco Site and Paying for Your Goods 3.6.3. The Amazon Website 3.7. Step by Step PWWebspeak Dedicated Web Browser Example of Making a Purchase on the Amazon Site 3.8. E-Wallets 3.9. Uk and US Shopping Price Comparison Sites 3.10. Some Good Places to Find Online Shops 3.10.1. The Amazon Shop 3.10.2. The Cdnow Shop 3.10.3. The Emusic Shop 3.10.4. The Expedia Shop 3.10.5. The Train Enquiry Shop 3.10.6. The Index and Argos Shops 3.10.7. The Cdwow Shop Section 4: Online Auctions 4.1. Auction Terminology 4.2. Different types of Online Auctions 4.2.1. The QXL Auction Site 4.2.2. The Morgan Auction Site 4.2.3. The Free Serve Auction Site 4.2.4. The American Blind Treasures Auction Site 4.2.5. The Ebay Auction Site 4.2.6. The Nochex Auction site 4.3. Step by Step Example of Using an Online Auction--The UK Morgan Site 4.4. Step by Step Example of Using an Online Auction--The US Blind Treasures Site Section 5: Realaudio Radio, News and Video 5.1. Basic RealPlayer 8 Hardware and software Requirements 5.2. How Does Web Radio or Webcasting Work 5.3. General Multiple Radio Sites to Listen To 5.4. Individual and Single Topic Radio Sites to Listen To 5.5. VI-Specific Multiple Radio Site to Listen to 5.6. Example of Streaming and Listening to Realaudio Using the Windows Media Player 5.7. Example of Listening to RealAudio Using Winamp 5.8. Installing and Using Realplayer 8 Basic 5.8.1. Pen-picture of the RealPlayer Basic Screen 5.8.2. Using RealPlayer 8 Basic 5.8.3. Loading a Clip for Playing in RealPlayer 5.8.4. Searching for things to Listen to or Watch 5.8.5. The Play List 5.8.6. The RealPlayer Basic Favourites Folder 5.8.7. Using the RealPlayer Help System 5.8.8. RealPlayer 8 Shortcut Keystrokes 5.9. RealPlayer 10 Basic 5.9.1. Basic RealPlayer 10 Hardware and software Requirements 5.9.2. Downloading and Installing RealPlayer 10 5.9.3. Tips on the Use of RealPlayer 10 on the Net 5.9.3.1. How to Listen to Audio Streaming from the Net 5.9.3.2. Essential Shortcut Keystrokes when Playing Streaming Audio and Audio from your Hard disk 5.9.3.3. Making Tonal Changes in the RealPlayer Equaliser 5.9.4. Using the RealPlayer 10 Help System 5.9.5. RealPlayer 10 Shortcut Keystrokes 5.10. How to Create Your Own Radio Station 5.10.1. On Live 365 5.10.2. On Yahoo Launchcast 5.11. Promote Your Own Station on the Streammadness Mailing List 5.12. Sharing Streaming Audio Content Over the Net by Peercasting 5.13. Recording/Ripping Streaming radio Audio to Disk 5.14. Shortcuts for use with the BBCs own Accessible Streaming Audio Player Section 6: Download Managers, Advertisement Banner removers, Cookie Crunchers and Spyware Removers 6.1. Where to Obtain Freeware and Shareware Download Managers 6.1.1. Download Accelerator 6.1.2. Download Wonder 6.1.3. RealDownload 6.1.4. GetRight 6.1.5. DLEXPERT 6.1.6. regit 6.1.7. Download Assistant 6.1.8. Download Butler 6.1.9. Tweakdun 6.1.10. Go!zilla 6.1.11. Winget 6.2. Where to Obtain Advertising Banner, Spyware and Cookie Removers 6.2.1. Ad-Aware 6.2.2. Popupkiller 6.2.3. Cookie Cruncher 6.2.4. Cookie Muncher 6.2.5. Karen's Cookie Viewer 6.2.6. Spyware Doctor 6.2.7. Spybot Search&Destroy 6.2.8. Online Cooky, banner and other Spyware Removers 6.3. Step by Step Example of Using a Download Manager--Download Accelerator 7.4 6.3.1. Download and Installation 6.3.2. Using Download Accelerator 6.3.3. Resuming a Lost or Paused Download 6.3.4. Changing Configurations with the DAP 7.4 Configuration Wizard 6.4. Step by Step Example of Using a Spyware and cooky Remover-- Ad-Aware 6.4.1. Download and Installation 6.4.2. Using Ad-Aware from its On-Screen Interface 6.4.3. Removing Detected Spyware 6.4.4. Emptying the Ad-Aware Quarantine Folder 6.4.5. Using Special JAWS Scripts to Automate the use of Ad-Aware 6.4.6. Updating Ad-Aware's Scanning Files Section 7: Internet Banking 7.1. Online Banking Introduction and security 7.2. A Selection of Internet Banking Sites 7.2.1. Smile Online Bank 7.2.2. Cahoot Online Bank 7.2.3. Halifax Bank 7.2.4. First Direct Bank 7.2.5. Barclays Bank 7.2.6. Natwest Bank 7.3. Step by Step Example of Opening and Using Online Banking--The ING Direct Bank Site 7.3.1. Opening an ING Direct Account Online 7.3.2. Transferring Funds from Your ING Direct Account to your Linked Current Account 7.3.3. Other Facilities Available on the ING Direct Site 7.4. Step by Step Example of Opening and Using Online Banking--The Nationwide Building Society Site 7.4.1. Making Arrangements with Your Local Branch and Providing Identification 7.4.2. What Happens Next 7.4.3. Activating a Branch Opened Account Online 7.4.4. How to Move Cash from One Account to Another Online 7.4.5. Other Facilities Available on the Nationwide Site Section 8: INTERNET CHAT 8.1. Microsoft Chat with Windows 95 and 98 8.1.1. What is Internet Chat? 8.1.2. Microsoft Chat Overview 8.1.3. What can Chat Rooms be Used For? 8.1.4. Pen-Picture of the Microsoft Chat Screen in Text Mode 8.1.5. Online Chat Rooms with Microsoft Chat 8.1.6. Using Microsoft chat Version 2.5 with windows 95 and 98 8.1.6.1. Group Chatting 8.1.6.2. Chatting in Private Chat Rooms 8.1.6.3. Microsoft Chat Modes 8.1.6.4. Microsoft Chat Commands 8.1.6.5. Practical Example of Joining a Chat Session with Microsoft Chat 8.1.6.6. Microsoft Chat Shortcut Keystrokes 8.2. Chatting with MSN Messenger 6.2 8.2.1. What Can You Use MSN Messenger For? 8.2.2. Signing on to the .Net Passport Service 8.2.3. Downloading MSN Messenger 8.2.4. Installing Messenger 8.2.5. Launching Messenger 8.2.6. Configuring Messenger for Optimal Use with a Screenreader 8.2.6.1. Stopping Messenger from Automatically Launching and Obtaining a Simple View of the Screen 8.2.6.2. Making Changes in Messenger Tools Options and Enabling your Virus Scanner 8.2.7. Pen-Picture of the Messenger Screen/Windows 8.2.8. How to Chat to One or More People with Messenger 8.2.8.1. Initiating a Chat without Using the Contacts List 8.2.8.2. Adding People to Your Contacts List 8.2.8.3. Initiating a Chat from Your Contacts List 8.2.9. Being notified that One of Your Contacts has come online and/or sent you a message 8.2.10. E-Mailing with MSN Messenger 8.2.10.1. Sending Someone an E-Mail 8.2.10.2. Downloading Your E-Mail 8.2.11. MSN Messenger General Shortcut Keystrokes and Specialist Screenreader Hot Keys 8.2.11.1. Windows Shortcuts 8.2.11.2. JAWS 4.5 to 6.0 Screenreader Hot Keys for Messenger 8.2.11.3. Window-Eyes 4.21 to 5.0 Screenreader Hot Keys for Messenger 8.2.11.4. HAL 4.5 to 6.5 Screenreader Hot Keys for Messenger 8.3. Other Chat Providers 8.3.1. General Providers 8.3.2. Specialist Blind-Friendly Chat Providers 8.3.2.1. A-Chat 8.3.2.2. The Million Web Chat 8.3.2.3. Accessible Chat Section 9: Using the Internet to Phone People 9.1. The Skype Internet Telephony Program--An overview 9.2. System Requirements 9.3. Downloading Skype and JAWS Scripts for Skype 9.4. Installing Skype and the JAWS Scripts 9.4.1. JAWS Scripts Installation 9.4.2. Skype Software Installation 9.5. Launching Skype 9.6. Pen-Picture of the Skype Screen 9.7. Skype's System Tray Context Menu and Skype Me Mode 9.8. Making and Receiving Audio Calls with Skype 9.8.1. Making a Call without using the Contacts List 9.8.2. Logging On and Finding Contacts 9.8.3. Calling Someone from your Contacts List 9.8.4. Answering a Call Someone is Making to You 9.9. Configuring Skype in its Options Dialogue 9.9.1. Viewing/Changing Options whilst Offline 9.9.2. Viewing/Changing Skype's Options whilst Online 9.10. Shortcut Keystrokes for Use with Skype 9.10.1. General Skype Shortcuts and Notification Sounds 9.10.2. JAWS Specialist Hot Keys for Skype Appendix 1: Where to Find More Internet Information 10.1. From the Internet Itself 10.2. In Braille 10.3. On Cassette 10.4. By E-Mail Appendix 2: List of E-Mail Lists Dealing with Particular Topics of Visual Impairment 11.1. List of VI-Related Lists and Examples of How to Subscribe to Them 11.2. Downloadable Comprehensive List of e-Mail Lists of Interest to Visually Impaired People Appendix 3: List of Hundreds of General Websites of Interest 12.1. Recommended Sites to Visit Appendix 4: Keyboard Shortcuts in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express 13.1. Internet Explorer 5 and 6 13.2. Outlook Express 5 and 6 Appendix 5: Glossary of Computer and Internet Terms 14.1. Glossary Appendix 6: Other Manuals Available from this Author 15.1. List of Tutorials with Brief Description of Each Complimentary Close ******** Foreword and Restrictions I have written this manual and tutorial for the use of blind and otherwise visually impaired computer users and/or their trainers. It is free of charge and only available from its author's Website and from no other distributer. No individual or organisation is permitted to sell copies of this tutorial either as a stand-alone tutorial or as an integral part of any other literary, software or training package. ******** AVAILABLE MANUAL FORMATS The manual is only available in ASCII text format, as a free download from the author's Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard This tutorial and guide has been created with a minimum of formatting, in plain text, so that any word-processor or text editor can read it. In this format it should also be suitable for any one to run it through an embosser but, with some embossing software, you may still wish to make some line spacing and heading format changes to suit yourself and your software. A simple construction such as this should also make reading by arrowing up and down in your word-processor less labour intensive than would be the case with columns, shorter lines, and the like. Colloquialisms, such as don't, haven't, doesn't, etc, have been avoided in this guide in order to make it easier to follow and understand via a speech package. Hopefully, any loss of conversationality and warmth will be compensated for by increased clarity. ******** TARGET GROUP Blind and other categories of visually impaired computer users are the target group for this manual. Keyboard access methods and descriptions, using screenreaders and no mouse or monitor, are the basis of this work. This second Internet tutorial is more likely to be useful to the intermediate standard Internet user who already knows the basics of Net surfing and something about Windows 95/98/ME/XP keystroke methods and is already connected to the Internet, rather than the complete novice. Volume 1 of this tutorial deals with the theory and more basic competencies required for accessing the Internet. This second volume of the Internet tutorial is intended to take visually impaired surfers from an already sound basis of interacting with the Internet to a more advanced level of usage. Moreover, it does not attempt to teach basic Windows 95/98/ME/XP operating system competencies. ******** CONVENTIONS In the writing of this tutorial, terms and keystroke combinations have the following meanings: ALT F, A Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst still holding it down press the letter f, then release both and press the letter A. CONTROL S Means hold down the control key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter S and then release both. SHIFT END Means hold down the SHIFT key and whilst keeping it held down press the END key. ALT E, C, and press ENTER Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter E key, then release both and then press the letter C key followed by the enter key. When a key combination such as ALT T (for Tools), O (for Options) is suggested to go into the "Tools" menu and run the "Options" menu item, the user may follow this method of operation or may prefer to ARROW up and down a menu and press ENTER. In this latter case, the keystrokes would be: press the ALT key, right ARROW to the "Tools" menu heading, then ARROW down (or up) until the "Options" item is spoken, then press ENTER. All individual and conbinations of keys you actually have to press during a procedure which have been referred to have been put in capital letters so that they stand out to anyone reading this tutorial visually, e.g. to bring up the Open dialogue box press CONTROL O. If, in a menu, your screenreader announces an arrow or says something like submenu, this means that pressing ENTER or right ARROWING on this menu item will take you into a sub-menu to ARROW up and down in and make a choice. If your screenreader announces a row of three dots or says something like dialogue, you will open up a dialogue box to work in if you press ENTER on it. Note that with some screenreaders you may encounter a conflict between the generic Windows shortcuts and the screenreader's own hot keys. If this happens, you may, for example, have to press such as ALT and then release it followed by T (for Tools) to get into the Tools menu instead of pressing ALT and T together. In other instances you may find it necessary to use your screenreader's bypass or skip next keystroke hot key to get your screenreader to ignore your next key combination and therefore allow that key combination to pass through to the program instead of intercepting it as a screenreader hot key, e.g. use the bypass hot key of INSERT B in Window-Eyes, INSERT 3 in JAWS and CONTROL NumPad 7 in HAL. ******** Suggested Approaches for Effective Learning with this Tutorial It is, of course, entirely up to the individual as to how they glean information and work through this tutorial, but a few suggestions might assist the learner who is relatively new to computers. I would propose that you read through the whole of a section before attempting to practise it to obtain an overview of what is being done. There are a number of approaches which might be taken to make reading the tutorial as a text file and simultaneously carrying out the instructions more fluid and easier to follow. Try one of the below methods. Ideally, if you have two computers, you can load the tutorial into your text editor or word-processor on one PC and have the software program running on the other. You can then listen to the directions on one computer whilst practising them on the other. Alternatively, as is likely to be the case, if you only have the one computer, you could launch your word-processor and load the tutorial into it for reading. You could then launch the program you wish to learn how to use in order to practise the lessons. You would have to keep cycling between each running program by pressing ALT TAB in this case. Yet another approach might be to take a tape recorder or dictaphone and get your screenreader to read the contents of a given section or sub-section onto the tape. You could then play the tape back and follow the instructions through on your PC without having to keep moving from one running program window to another. Other options would be for you to print out a copy of the tutorial in large print if you can use this and work from this hard copy, or you could get your local library or resource centre to produce a Braille version for you to work from if you have one in your area and you are a Braillist. ******** >SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. What this Tutorial does and does not Cover This tutorial (Volume 2 of the Internet tutorial) is the follow-on or sequel to Volume 1 of Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard. It does not teach the basics of Internet surfing, file downloading, use of Outlook Express or go into a description of what the Internet is or the theory of how it works, nor does it explain the various protocols which are involved in using Internet services, etc. These are all covered in Volume 1 of the tutorial. However, do have reference to various of the appendices where I have listed helpful information, in particular Appendix 4 "Keyboard Shortcuts in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express" and Appendix 5 "Glossary of Computer and Internet Terms". I have also provided a sub- section just below with several of the most important JAWS, HAL and Window-Eyes hot keys for use on Web pages in it as a place for you to easily find and refresh your memory in respect of these. Additionally, I have supplied a section covering helpful tips and hints on using the Internet and related software and hardware. This volume of the Internet tutorial is intended to take users from an intermediate level of competence into the more advanced and likely more challenging areas of the Internet from a screenreader point of view. It takes over from where Volume 1 of the Internet tutorial leaves off. Alternatively, if you have not already downloaded Volume 1 of Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard, you should have gained a reasonable level of skill on the Internet in general and with your screenreader of choice in particular via other means, whether from other manuals or tutorials or by trial and error, so that you have reached a reasonable stage of surfing attainment before you take on these more advanced skills. Volume 2 of the Internet tutorial does not instruct the user in how to use any particular specific screenreader (although some screenreader special shortcuts are occasionally exemplified or reminders of their existence given) but instead concentrates on the general keystrokes provided within Microsoft Windows programs to get things done. In this way the visually impaired computer user should be able to reasonably function on the Net irrespective of the screenreader which is on the computer they are currently using--something which would not be possible if you only learned the special keystrokes which come with a given screenreader package to achieve your goals. One thing you must keep in mind is that the Internet is continually in flux, growing and changing. Some Internet sites and pages you accessed and viewed last week will no longer exist this week, others will have come into existence within the last few hours and yet others will still be there but will have been altered in their construction and general appearance since you last visited them. Therefore, whilst at the time of writing the keystrokes given herein were the ones to use to achieve a given end result, This tutorial aims not so much to get you to follow precise keystrokes on particular sites only but rather to give you a general grasp of what the changing Internet is like and the confidence to use it even if some sites and web pages have changed since both I and you last frequented them. To be able to derive the maximum range of experience in completing Internet forms, I would recommend that you go onto all of the Websites covered as practical examples in the body of this tutorial, even if you do not want to download a given program or join a particular bank. This is because all of the forms you will encounter in these examples are different and you will therefore get a broader idea of how they can vary and how to deal with a larger variety of them. You can always, at the point of download or submission of a form, duck out and abort the download or subscription, having gain the practical experience to get you to the final stage of forms completion. 1.2. JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Special Web Page Navigation Hot Keys Here I list, as a memory jogger, the main JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Web page hot keys when using Internet Explorer 5 and later as of March 2005. 1.2.1. JAWS 4.0, 4.5, 5 and 6 Most of the below JAWS hot keys work with versions of JAWS from 4.0 onwards but a few will only work if you have upgraded to later versions which have included extra hot keys. If you press one of these single hot keys and nothing happens, it is likely that this hot key does not exist in your copy of JAWS, otherwise you would get some kind of feedback as JAWS would at least report "no more divisions found" if you press Z and your version of JAWS does not feature this particular recent addition to its range of single hot keys. Please note that the large INSERT key at the bottom left-hand side of the number pad is also frequently referred to as the JAWS key. I will only call it the INSERT key throughout this tutorial, as this is its most common name when the number pad is turned off. It is often used in conjunction with other number pad and main keyboard keys to invoke special combined hot key actions and so is used in a similar way to the SHIFT key when capitalising letters. Press A: To jump to the next anchor on a page. Press B: To move to the next button on a page. Press C: To get the current column read out in a table on a Web page. From JAWS 6 this key's function changes and moves you between comboboxes. Press D: to skip to the next different element on a page, e.g. from a link to an editfield and then, perhaps, to another link or combobox. Press E: to skip past the next element on a Web page. This changes to skipping to the next editfield on a page from JAWS 6. Press F: to skip to the next form (editfield) control on a Web page. Press G: To jump to the next graphic on a page. Press H: to jump to the next heading on a Web page. Press I: To skip to the next list item in a list on a Web page. Press J: To jump to any line in the JAWS virtual buffer after entering the line's number. You use SHIFT J to return to the starting point before the jump. Press K: To jump to the next place marker on a Web page if you have previously inserted markers on that page. Press L: to go directly to the next list on a Web page. Press M: to move to the next frame on a Web page. Press N: To skip past links on a Web page. Press O: To go to the next object tag on a page. Press P: To move to the next paragraph on a page. Press Q: To move to the next block quote on a page. Press R: To get the current row read out in a table on a Web page. From JAWS 6 this key's function changes and moves you between radio buttons. Press S: to jump to the next same element on a Web page, e.g. from edit field to editfield. Press T: To jump to the next Table on a page. Press U: To go to the next unvisited link on a Web page. Press V: To go to the next already visited link on a Web page. Press X: To go to the next checkbox on a page. Press Z: To jump to the next division on a page. Press >: To step past the next element on a Web page. Press <: To step to the element before the prior element on a page. Note 1: Hold down the SHIFT key with any of the above single letter hot keys to obtain the reverse action, i.e. jump backwards through lists, tables, editfields, etc. Note 2: From JAWS 6 you can hold down the CONTROL key and the INSERT key together and then press any of the above single letter keys to obtain a list of that particular element, e.g. CONTROL INSERT Z will bring up a list of the divisions on the current Web page. Press ENTER: to turn MSAA mode off when on a form editing field to be able to type text in. Pressing Numpad + (the PC cursor) turns MSAA mode back on. INSERT F1: Obtains screen sensitive help. INSERT F1 twice: Obtains JAWS help for a specific application. INSERT A: Reads the contents of the Address Bar. INSERT W: Provides tips on general Windows shortcut keystrokes. CONTROL UP or DOWN ARROW: Moves you from one text paragraph to another on a Web page. INSERT F6: Places the headings on a Web page into a structured hierarchical order to quickly ARROW through and press ENTER on any one to jump there (but only if the page has been written using HTML structured heading tags, e.g. H1, H2, etc). Before JAWS 4.01 this command simply took you to the Desktop minimised. CONTROL INSERT HOME: Takes you to the first form field on a page, if JAWS has not automatically placed you there already. You will have to press ENTER to turn MSAA mode off and forms mode on before you can complete editfields on a Web page or in a form. CONTROL INSERT TAB: Moves you to the next form field. CONTROL INSERT SHIFT TAB: Moves you to the previous form field. CONTROL INSERT END: Takes you to the last form field on a page. INSERT ENTER: Jumps you to the next instance of text with no associated link to read that text. INSERT F7: Invokes a links list so that you can ARROW up or down the links on a page or jump straight to a link by pressing the first letter of its name. You can also select between A-Z or Z-A order, have them in the original page TAB order, have only unvisited links displayed, only visited links displayed, etc. Pressing ENTER on one of these links will activate it. INSERT F9: Provides you with a frames list of the same type as the above links list. INSERT F5: From Version 5 onwards, displays a listbox with all of the controls and forms on the current Web page similar to the above two list features. INSERT Z: Toggles the virtual PC cursor on and off. CONTROL INSERT F: goes into the JAWS Find dialogue to type text in to jump to this. CONTROL INSERT TAB: Moves you from the current form field to the next form field. CONTROL INSERT SHIFT TAB: Same as the above but backwards through form fields. Press INSERT DELETE: To route the virtual cursor to the location of the PC cursor. Press SPACEBAR: To toggle checkboxes, select radio buttons and activate buttons without entering forms mode from Version 4.51 onwards. Press ALT DELETE: To obtain information about how much of an online document you have already read as a percentage of the whole text. ALT CONTROL NumPad 5: Reads the cell in a table which has focus. ALT CONTROL left or right ARROW: Moves you left or right through table columns and cells on a Web page. ALT CONTROL up or down ARROW: Moves you up or down a cell in a table. ALT CONTROL HOME OR END: Moves you to the first or last cell in a table respectively. WINDOWS KEY down ARROW: Moves to the next row in a table. WINDOWS KEY up ARROW: Moves to the previous row in a table. WINDOWS KEY .: Reads the current collum in a table. WINDOWS KEY ,: Reads the current row in a table. CONTROL J: Is the jump to cell in a table hot key. Pressing the main keyboard numbers 1 to 6: Jumps you from one heading to another heading on a Web page, e.g. pressing 1 repeatedly keeps moving you through heading 1 level headings, pressing 2 repeatedly keeps moving you through level 2 headings, etc. In this way you can quickly move between headings at the same level and between different levels of headings. A new concept introduced from JAWS 5.0 is the place marker insertion, jump to and list dialogue box. You can insert up to 10 place markers on any Web page and give them individual names. You can cycle through these place markers by pressing the K key and you can open up the place marker dialogue and view the list of your markers, add new markers, name them, move them in the list, remove them and jump to any one you like. You can do this whilst on a Web page online on the Net or on a Web page held on your hard disk without being online. There are only three essential hot key commands involved, as listed below. Press CONTROL SHIFT K: To open the place marker dialogue box when on a Web page to insert a permanent marker or make a temporary marker permanent. Press K: to jump forward through markers. Press SHIFT K: to jump backwards through markers. In practice, what you do with place markers is: 1. Whilst on a Web page with your cursor at the desired place you want a marker to be inserted, press CONTROL SHIFT K to open the place markers dialogue box to permanently add, name, move, remove, change the name of or jump to any place marker. 2. Now TAB to "Add" and press ENTER. 3. Next type a meaning full name into the editfield you are in such as "phone number for Webmaster" and press ENTER, and you have now finished inserting and naming your marker. 4. You can now jump to these markers with the above-mentioned K and SHIFT K commands or you can again press CONTROL SHIFT K to open the place markers' dialogue and then ARROW to any marker by its meaningful name and press ENTER on it to jump to it. The place marker feature has a few other non-essential hot keys which you may also wish to try, as follows: Press CONTROL k: to insert a single temporary marker at the cursor position on a page. Press CONTROL SHIFT 1 through 0: To get the name of any of the 10 markers on a page spoken to you (this hot key failed to work for me but perhaps it will work for you). Press CONTROL SHIFT 1 to 0 quickly twice: To move straight to the marker associated with that marker number, e.g. CONTROL SHIFT 5 twice to jump to marker number 5. 1.2.2. HAL 5, 6 and 6.5 Please note that, with HAL 6 onwards, the CAPSLOCK key at the left-hand side of the keyboard is also frequently referred to as the Dolphin key. I will only call it the CAPSLOCK key throughout this tutorial, as this is its most common name. It is often used in conjunction with other keys to invoke special combined hot key actions and so is used in a similar way to the SHIFT key when capitalising letters. Please also note that, when either the CONTROL or SHIFT keys are mentioned in the below list of hot keys, it is the left key which should be pressed. Pressing the right CONTROL or SHIFT key may not work. The following hot keys are available in HAL: F1: Provides context-sensitive help for the control or other element which focus is currently on. F3: Activates HALs find feature to jump to a given word or words on a Web page. You type the word(s) in and press ENTER to get the first occurrence of the word found. F4: This is the find next occurrence of a word hot key, after firstly invoking the find with F3 as above. F2: Is the find previous occurrence of a word key, after firstly invoking the find with F3 as above. SPACEBAR: Activates (left clicks on) a link, rather than pressing ENTER as with earlier versions of HAL. ENTER (return or carriage return key): Puts you into forms mode whilst on an editfield on a Web page. You can then type information into an editfield. You may have to press ENTER each time you encounter such an editfield to type text in. From HAL Version 6.03 you enter forms mode by pressing CAPSLOCK ENTER and HAL should then automatically change from forms editing mode to reading mode and back again without you having to do anything more. NumPad +: Starts and stops continuous document read. INSERT: Is the left click simulation key. To left click and change to live focus press the A key and to left double click press the U key. DELETE: Is the right click simulation key. To right click and change to live focus press the D key and to right double click press the E key. Left CONTROL PAGE UP or DOWN: Moves you upwards or downwards through any elements of a page which are not links, e.g. buttons, checkboxes, editfields, etc. Left CONTROL SHIFT PAGE DOWN or PAGE UP: Moves you from frame to frame on a page. Left CONTROL SHIFT HOME: Jumps you to the first form editfield on a page. Left CONTROL shift right ARROW: Moves you to the next occurrence of text which is not associated with a link. Left CONTROL SHIFT right ARROW: Opposite of above. Left CONTROL SHIFT DOWN ARROW: Skips you downwards through links on a page. Left CONTROL SHIFT UP ARROW: Opposite of above. Left SHIFT Numpad 0: Gives you the URL of a link which is not entitled or which has a meaningless title, such as "Click Here". ALT T (for Tools) then ARROW down to "Dolphin Links Navigator" and press ENTER: Loads the Links Navigator to format the links on a page in a row to ARROW through in A-Z, Z-A or Tab order or jump straight to a link by pressing the first letter of its name. Pressing ENTER will activate the link. With the introduction of HAL 5.20 and later, the Links Navigator is replaced by what is known as the Dolphin List Utility, to do the same links listing and selecting job but more efficiently and it also lists frames and HTML headings. You can use it for complex Web pages and for finding your way around HTML help files. With HAL 6, you also have hot keys of CAPSLOCK 1 to list links on a Web page, CAPSLOCK 2 to list headings, CAPSLOCK 3 to list frames and capslock 4 to list what is in the System Tray. CAPSLOCK ENTER: From HAL 6.03 only, invokes HALs new forms mode to make such as online shopping sites easier to work on. After pressing CAPSLOCK ENTER, As you move through a Web page, HAL intuitively automatically switches out of auto-virtual focus mode into live mode every time it comes across an editfield or other similar control to which live mode is appropriate. It will also automatically return to auto-virtual focus mode when required to do so in order to allow you to continue reading the Web page to be able to do things such as activate links. CAPSLOCK Numpad 7: In HAL 6.03 onwards, speaks the name of a form label to the left of an editfield if this is not automatically spoken by HAL in its forms mode because it is out of HAL's normal zone of detection. CAPSLOCK Numpad 8: In HAL 6.03 only, speaks the name of a form label above an editfield if this is not automatically spoken by HAL in its forms mode because it is out of HAL's normal zone of detection. Note: With HAL 5X the general Windows commands of ALT left and right ARROWS to take you to your last visited Web page backwards or forwards respectively do not work. 1.2.3. Window-Eyes 4.2, 4.5 and 5 Most of the below hot keys apply to all versions of Window-Eyes from Version 4.0 on Web pages but the hot keys for using Window- Eyes in MSAA mode to navigate Web pages immediately below apply before version 4.5. for those which apply from Version 4.5, see the new list beneath this first one. CONTROL SHIFT F1: Brings up WE help but this is not context sensitive. CONTROL SHIFT F: Enables the WE find feature. Pressing INSERT F will continue the search in the same direction. ALT U: Reads the URL for the current page. CONTROL INSERT S: Reads the status line, which may have useful Web page download details. CONTROL SHIFT A: Toggles MSAA mode on and off whilst MSAA mode is in automatic loading mode. If you find that some links on a Website are not working properly with Window-Eyes and so not being activated when you press ENTER on them, you may find that you can cure this by turning MSAA mode off and then on again by pressing CONTROL SHIFT A twice. This is a known issue with some versions of WE, e.g. Version 5.0. INSERT A: Toggles automatic loading of MSAA mode on or off. CONTROL SHIFT R: Will read a Web page from the cursor to its end. CONTROL SHIFT S: Provides information about how many lines are in the current page and what line the cursor is presently on, plus advice about whether the page has frames. ALT SHIFT DOWN ARROW: Moves you through links only on a page, missing out any other elements or controls, such as editfields, buttons, checkboxes, etc. ALT SHIFT UP ARROW: Opposite of the above. ALT DOWN ARROW: Moves you to the next element on a page, e.g. a link, an editfield, a button, etc, but it takes you to another type of control which is not the same as the one you left, e.g. if you were in a textbox you would not go to another textbox but to something else such as a button, a link, etc. ALT UP ARROW: Opposite of above. INSERT ALT DOWN ARROW: Moves you to the next text-only block skipping all other controls. ALT CONTROL SHIFT DOWN ARROW: Takes you to a previously visited link on a page skipping all other elements and unvisited links. ALT CONTROL DOWN ARROW: Moves you straight to the first control on a page which is not a link or text line, typically a form field such as a search box, but you must do this from the top of the page. Another press takes you to the next control on the page. You will have to press ENTER to turn MSAA mode off before you can complete editfields on a Web page or in a form. ALT CONTROL UP ARROW: Jumps you to the last control on a page from the bottom of the page. ALT CONTROL HOME: Takes you to your last position on a page or to the place you were before you moved to a subsequent page if moving back to the first page does not land you there automatically. INSERT TAB: Invokes the Window-Eyes vertical controls list from where you can choose to view and ARROW through lists of frames, tables or links in A-Z, Z-A or to view links in their original Web page TAB order, etc. Pressing ENTER on a link will activate it. F6: Takes you to the attachments list in an e-mail. ALT CONTROL TAB: Takes you to the first table on a page, when you then use CONTROL + to enter table mode. CONTROL - leaves table mode. Pressing ALT CONTROL TAB again will take you to the next instance of a table on the Web page if there is one. ALT CONTROL SHIFT TAB: Moves you backwards through tables on a page. CONTROL SHIFT H: Lets you cycle through several ways WE will give you table information, e.g. announce top headings as well as cell co-ordinates and contents, side headings as well as cell co- ordinates, etc. INSERT right, left, up and down ARROWS: Move you one cell at a time through a table on a Web page right, left, up and down respectively. CONTROL INSERT right or left ARROW: Moves you to the end or start of a row in a table. CONTROL INSERT up or down ARROW: Moves you to the top or bottom of a column in a table. With the advent of Window-Eyes 4.5 and later versions, the hot keys for working with Web pages in MSAA mode have changed to those shown below but, of course, many of the above hot keys of general use on Web pages still work: Press A: to skip to the next anchor on a Web page. Press C: To jump to the next control on a Web page. Press E: to jump to the next fieldset. Press F: To skip to the next form on a page. Press H: to move to the next heading on a page. Press I: to jump to the next list item in a list on a Web page. Press L: To jump to the next link on a Web page. Press P: To jump to the next paragraph on a page. Press Q: To move to the next block quote on a page. Press S: to skip to the next list on a Web page. Press T: To jump to the next table on a page. Press V: To jump to the next already visited link. Press X: to jump to the next instance of a text field on a Web page. Press left BRACKET F: To go to the beginning of the current form. Press right BRACKET F: To go to the end of the current form. Note 1: Hold down the SHIFT key with most of the above single letter hot keys to obtain the reverse action, i.e. jump backwards through lists, tables, editfields, etc. Note 2: Your screenreader may have fewer, more or even none of the above single key shortcuts, depending on its version. However, slightly earlier versions than those mentioned here should have most of them and slightly later versions should have them plus a few more. You should consult the hot keys section of the online help which comes with your screenreader version. Press INSERT V: To bring up the MSAA verbosity settings list, where you can control how much information WE provides you with on Web pages in respect of listboxes, forms, tables, lists and other Web page elements. Press CONTROL Numpad +: To enter table mode. Press CONTROL Numpad -: to leave table mode. 1.2.4. Windows Operating System Shortcuts The description of Web pages and the Windows shortcuts you can use on them is given here in paragraph and dialogue form instead of in straight lists of key presses and resultant actions. A Website is a collection of interlinked Web pages on a particular computer on the Nett. The first page is the home or index page. Web pages can contain text, pictures, animations and audio and video clips. Pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on a "link" on a Web page may take you to another link on that same page, to another page on the same Website or to a page on another computer altogether anywhere else in the world. When you have loaded a Web page of text and pictures and the text on that screen has all been automatically read to you (24 lines per screen), you press the PAGE DOWN key to hear the next screen of information. Pressing PAGE UP takes you back a screen of information and reads it. Pressing CONTROL PAGE down moves you to the next page and CONTROL PAGE up takes you back a page. Up and down ARROW keys should permit you to read the page a line at a time, otherwise do this in your screenreader's navigation or mouse mode. Pressing the TAB key moves you forward to the next element on the current page, e.g. link, button, editfield, etc, whereas pressing SHIFT TAB takes you back an element. If you want to go back to the link you were last at (previous page, previous site, etc), you press ALT LEFT ARROW key. If you want to go forward a link, you press ALT RIGHT ARROW key. (Remember, these two latter commands do not work if you are using HAL 5X.) To return directly to where you first started out, i.e. your opening page when first launching your browser, press ALT HOME. Internet Explorer also has a Go to visited page history feature, so that you can view and go back to any page you have already been to in the current surfing session. You get to this history by pressing ALT V (for View( and then O (for Goto) and ARROWING up and down the already visited page names and pressing ENTER on any of them. You are likely to find that every time you open a new page within a site, you are presented at the top of the page with the same list of pictures, advertisements, logos, navigational bars with image buttons on them, list of links to go to, etc. The relevant section of the new page you have loaded may only appear halfway down the new page. You will have to ARROW or TAB quickly past all of this time and again to find what you want, which is tedious but necessary, unless your screenreader has a special jump past header links shortcut or links only links list facility which allows you to go easily to a specific link, put links in alphabetical order, display only unvisited links, etc, such as is available from JFW 3.7 with the INSERT F7 and INSERT F9 commands, The Window-Eyes 4.0 onwards INSERT TAB and CONTROL TAB commands or by downloading MS Powertoys and using its SHIFT F10 and "Links List" option. Another way to quickly get past these repeated header links is to press PAGE down once or twice until you jump past them or, if the page has frames, press CONTROL TAB once or twice to jump past the header frames. As you move around a Web page, in addition to encountering readable text, you will come across icons and images (pictures) which are meaningful to a sighted person but may be meaningless to a screenreader. Your screen reader may only be able to announce such as "image" or "bitmap" (or just say nothing) when it falls on these pictures. However, if the Webmaster (the person who wrote the Web page) has done his job thoroughly, he should have placed text titles at the side of these icons which your screenreader can read out to you to clarify what the picture is or what will happen if you press ENTER on an iconised link. These text titles are known as "ALT tags". Some Websites employ what are known as "frames". A good screenreader should be able to allow you to negotiate frames but some older ones cannot cope with them very well. A frame is an area on a Web page where similar types of information is stored but there are likely to be several frames on screen at once and, depending upon what you do in one frame, the layout and content of another frame may change. this usually makes browsing such sites more difficult, although not impossible. The more up-to- date and better quality screenreaders can now deal quite well with frames and have special keystrokes to do this. The standard Windows keystroke to move from one frame on a page to another is to press CONTROL TAB until you get to the frame you wish to look at and then you can ARROW down the information in the frame you are currently on. CONTROL SHIFT TAB moves you backwards through frames. ******** >SECTION 2 HELPFUL TIPS AND CUSTOMISATION I have repeated this "Tips and Customisation" section, which also appears in Volume 1 of the Internet tutorial, as even more knowledgeable Web users may find something new that is worthwhile trying amongst the below suggestions. You may wish to make some of these refinements to your programs immediately or wait until later. Whichever way you approach this, it is nonetheless a good idea to glance through this section before you move on. 2.1. Twenty Customisation and Other Tips 1. You may, if your phone line provider is BT, wish to opt for the BT Friends and Relatives service in order to register your Internet Service Provider's phone number as your best friend number to obtain a 20 per cent discount; otherwise, register it for a 10 per cent discount. This is something which BT may disallow at any time in future. 2. World Wide Web addresses have the suffix "http://" but you do not need to type this in when going to a Web page, as Web browsers fill this part of the address in for you automatically. Thus, this suffix has not been given when any website addresses have been indicated in this manual which may not need it. 3. To print a Web page, with the page on screen, press CONTROL P. 4. A "link" on a Web page is a place where you can press the ENTER key to jump from one part of the page to another to obtain more information, or from one page to another on the same site or from one computer site on the Web to another computer anywhere else in the world. Web page links should be announced by your screenreader saying something like "link" but if this does not happen with your screenreader you should turn attributes (such as colour change and/or style change) on in your screenreader so that these changes will be announced to alert you to their whereabouts. Links are normally underlined and in blue text. Some of these links may be embedded in the middle of other text and form an integral part of the textual information. You have to navigate to links with the TAB key, the ARROW keys or your screenreader's special links list facility or hot key and press the ENTER or SPACEBAR key to activate the link. 5. You can copy links from a Web page (with CONTROL C) to the Clipboard and then paste them into the Address Bar (with CONTROL V) in Internet Explorer rather than having to retype them. 6. If a Web page comes down from the Internet scrambled, you can press CONTROL R to reload it or F5 to refresh the screen. 7. To obtain more screen space and not cause your screenreader to be distracted, in many Windows programs it is worth turning off the Toolbar by pressing ALT V, T, and unchecking any of the Toolbars which are checked, but this is not essential, e.g. in Internet Explorer and Word. So, in Internet Explorer, you may wish to uncheck (by pressing ENTER on them) the "Standard Buttons" and "Radio" options but ensure that "Links" is checked on. However, if you are likely to want to use a toolbar to effect a command, do not do this, or turn Toolbars on and off as required. Ensure that "Status Bar" is also checked on in the View Menu. 8. In Internet Explorer, to speed up page downloading (if you do not use a monitor), press ALT T (for Tools), O (for Options) and then CONTROL TAB to the "Advanced" property sheet and TAB once to the "Accessibility" button. ARROW down this long list of options and uncheck (turn off by pressing the SPACEBAR) "Play Animations", "Play Videos", "Show Pictures" and "Smart Image Dithering". Ensure that the following are checked on: "Always Expand ALT Text for Images", "Notify When Downloads Complete" and "Play Sounds". It might also assist some screenreaders if you then CONTROL SHIFT TAB back to the "General" sheet, TAB to "Accessibility" and press ENTER, then ensure that "Ignore Colours Specified on Web Pages", "Ignore Font Sizes Specified on Web Pages" and "Ignore Font Sizes Specified on Web Pages" are all checked on; but "Format Documents Using My style Sheet" should be checked off. 9. In order to facilitate faster initial page loading and avoid the introductory advertisements which present themselves when you first load Internet Explorer, you can have it load with a blank page. To do this, with Internet Explorer running, press ALT T for Tools, O for Options, and in the "general" property sheet TAB forward to "Use Blank" and press ENTER. Then TAB on to OK and press ENTER. In future, when you start Internet Explorer, it will open with a blank page and your screenreader may announce the word "About". You just continue as normal (see Section 4 for how to launch Internet Explorer). 10. Some screenreaders may read what is on the screen better if you surf in "full screen" mode. All you have to do to obtain full screen mode is press the F11 key or press ALT V and arrow up to "Full Screen"and press ENTER. Pressing F11 again returns you to normal mode. Experiment to discover which view is best for you but be aware that full screen mode makes a program completely fill the screen, so title bars, menu bars, status lines, etc, will disappear. 11. To speed up connection to your ISP and make site connections and downloads quicker, go To "My Computer" on your Desktop and press ENTER. Then ARROW down to "Dialup Networking" and press ENTER. With the ARROW keys, place the focus on your Internet provider, e.g. Onetel, Freeserve, etc, and then open up its context menu by pressing SHIFT F10. Now ARROW up to "Properties", press ENTER followed by pressing CONTROL TAB to the "Server Types" property sheet. Now TAB to "Advanced Options" and in here ensure that all of the following are unchecked: "Log Onto Network", "Enable Software Compression", "Require Encrypted Password", "Require Data Encryption" and "Record a Log File for this Connection". Then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. 12. With Outlook Express 5.1 and later, upload and download time (especially with a slow PC/MODEM/ISP server) can be saved by turning off "Request a Read Receipt for all Sent Messages" and ensuring that "Never Send a Read Receipt" is selected in Tools, Options, Receipts. 13. It is not advisable to use standard quality reel-type multi-strand phone extension wire to extend a MODEM cable to a far-off phone socket. It may work OK but is likely to cause your line to the Internet to be dropped more than would otherwise be the case. The wiring inside this type of extension, whilst fine for robust voice telephone communications, may not be of good enough quality to transfer the delicate signals of many MODEMS. You should extend any cabling with single strand, copper cabling, which can be purchased from BT shops. 14. What is known as the "gain" on a phone line is basically the speed at which or sensitivity with which a phone line carries messages. The standard gain on a BT phone line is set to zero. This is fine for robust voice communications but often not good enough for sensitive MODEM signal transfer, particularly if the line to your nearest phone exchange is at a considerable distance. If you are experiencing frequent failed connections to your ISP or regular line cut-offs, you may be able to remedy or at least improve this problem by ringing BT and asking them to increase the gain on the line. I am advised by BT that the highest level that they can increase the gain to is 4, as a gain above level 4 is likely to cause echo on the line and thus result in the line getting worse rather than better. 15. If your MODEM is inexplicably disconnected from the Internet frequently it could be that your MODEM is too sensitive to signal lapses. To increase the time that your MODEM stays connected during lapses you may find that the following helps: A. Press Windows key and then S (for Settings), followed by C (for Control Panel). B. Press M until MODEMS has focus and then press ENTER. C. TAB to "Properties" and press ENTER. D. CONTROL TAB to "Connections" and then TAB to "Advanced" and press ENTER. E. TAB to "Extra Settings" and type the following string in: s10=50 This is all you type if there is nothing else in this editfield. If some other information is already in there, you just leave a space at the end of the other details and type the s10=50 at the end of it. This will now mean that your signal can lapse for up to five seconds without your MODEM cutting off. 16. Whilst some screenreaders automatically make use of Microsoft's Active Accessibility facility (MSAA), others can only use it if it is specifically enabled. JFW and Window-Eyes automatically use MSAA but some earlier versions of HAL require that you manually install MSAA. To enable MSAA for Windows 95 and 98, so that ALT tags and other special screenreader friendly features can be used with HAL before version 5: A. Press the Windows key followed by F to open the Find facility, then press ENTER and type in the editfield which you will fall in: msaardk.exe B. TAB to "Look In" and ensure that C: has focus--you may have to ARROW up and down to achieve this--then press ENTER. C. The msaa.exe file will be found, so just press CONTROL A to highlight this file followed by pressing ENTRE. D. You will then be told that MSAA will be installed, so press ENTER on the "Yes" button. After about 30 seconds you will be informed that installation is finished, so press ENTER on the "OK" button. E. When asked to restart the PC, TAB to "NO" and press ENTER. u return to the Find dialogue box, so press ALT F4 to close this down. F. You now have to enable MSAA in Hal's control panel by pressing CONTROL SPACEBAR, followed by CONTROL TAB to the "General Settings" property sheet. Then press ENTER. G. Now Press TAB until you reach "MSAA Detection" and select it by pressing the SPACEBAR. H. You finish by pressing ESCAPE twice, when MSAA will be loaded and usable by older versions of Hal. All you now have to do is reboot the computer before going onto the Internet. 17. If, when using Outlook Express, you experience the system intermittently trying to take you back on line when you do not want this to happen, it may be that you are set up to check for the existence of new messages periodically. If you wish to stop this: A. Press ALT T (for Tools), then O (for Options. B. You drop into the "General" property sheet, so TAB down to "Check for New Messages Every" and press SPACEBAR to deselect this. Otherwise, if you still want periodically taking on line to check for new messages but less frequently, just TAB once more to the next line and alter the figure in their to a larger one, e.g. type in 60 if you only want the system to check for new messages every 60 minutes. C. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. 18. When running Outlook Express, the program may from time to time, without you requesting this, attempt to take you online. If this is an annoyance to you, you can stop it by: A. With Outlook Express running, press ALT T (for Tools), then O (for options. B. CONTROL TAB to "Connections" and then TAB down to "Change" and press ENTER. C. Next TAB six times to "Always Dial My Default Connection" and ARROW down once to "Never Dial a Connection" and then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. D. Now just TAB once more to another "OK" button and press ENTER to finish. 19. If you can make use of a monitor with Internet Explorer provided that the text on it is large enough, you can change the "Medium" size text on screen, which is the default (standard) way it is set up, by: A. Press ALT V (for View). B. Then press X (for Text). C. ARROW to "Large" or "Largest" and press ENTER. Conversely, if you do not use a monitor and this will not adversely affect anyone else using the same PC, you could select "Small " or "Smallest" to ensure that you get as much text onto the screen as possible. 20. If you are using JAWS 5.0 or later and you are having problems with Websites which employ Macromedia Flash, you can tell JAWS to ignore this and therefore view pages without such as unwanted frequent page refreshing, screenreader stammer, etc. You have to do this in the JAWS Configuration Manager by: A. Press INSERT F2 and then ENTER on "Configuration Manager". B. Press ALT S (for Set Options". C. ARROW down to "HTML Options" and press ENTER. D. Now hold down the CONTROL key and press the TAB key until you reach "Misc". E. On the "Misc" property sheet TAB down to "Ignore Flash on Web Pages" and press the SPACEBAR to check this off. F. Now TAB to "OK" and press ENTRE. G. Lastly, leave the Configuration Manager and save your new settings by pressing CONTROL S and then ALT F4 if necessary. ******** >SECTION 3 INTERNET SHOPPING Internet shopping can open up a whole new world of merchandise to visually impaired people or at least allow them to obtain everyday goods without having to risk life and limb going to high street shops to get them. However, If you decide to embark on Internet purchasing, you should take great care to ensure that you put the correct details in the right places on forms. If in doubt initially, recruit a sighted friend with knowledge of these things to advise you as to what is happening for the first time or two that you use an online shop, until you become confident about what you are doing. The author cannot be held responsible for any mistakes you may make whilst Internet shopping. You engage in this at your own risk. Remember, shop sites and completion forms may change from time to time and the whereabouts of there credit card editfields, address boxes, etc, may change. It is also recommended that you have an up-to-date, good quality virus scanner to avoid potentially devastating viruses whilst surfing the Web, e.g. McAfee or Norton Utilities. Or you can download a good free virus-checker called AVG from: www.grisoft.com Use of a good firewall would also be a sensible idea, e.g. Zone Alarm or Sygate Personal Firewall. You can download a free copy of Sygate from: www.sygate.com Additionally, ensure that you run a good spyware scanner on your system from time to time, e.g. Ad-Aware. You can get this free from: www.lavasoftusa.com 3.1. General Overview There are specific online only shops, such as Dabs, and there are online shops as well which are also listed in Directory Enquiries to place phone orders as well as online orders, such as amazon and jungle, and there are standard high street shops which have also created a mail order type Web shop, such as argos and Tesco. When you are at an online shop, you can usually search for goods you want in order to check if they stock them, what the price is, a description of the goods, etc. After launching Internet Explorer from your Desktop, you can go to an online store with it by pressing the usual CONTROL O and then type in the URL. Alternatively, you can go to a Net "shopping mall" which contains several shops that you can look through and you can search through the mall to find which shops stock what you want. Microsoft hosts such an online shopping mall. You can, of course, also find Internet stores by use of a standard or meta Web search engine, such as Altavista or Google, but the first two methods of locating online shops are the more secure. 3.2. Security Issues Be aware of the following security risks and safety measures. 3.2.1. Secure HTTP Websites Quality Internet shopping sites generally encrypt (scramble) purchase details via a secure information page, so that only the intended recipient can decode and read them. These pages are often referred to as secure "padlocked" pages. There is 40-bit encryption in the UK and 128-bit in the US. This makes online shopping more secure than shopping by phone or Fax. It is probably safer for UK residents to stick to UK online shops so that UK law and guarantees apply and can be enforced. You should try to limit your purchases to quality online shopping sites you know give a good service or those friends inform you are reliable. The site should clearly show their postal address, e-mail address and phone number and they should inform you of their return and refund policies. The site should have a confidentiality or privacy link which you should browse through. If there is no information of this type, ask them to post it to you. It is important to keep records of your internet purchases, e.g. if a company sends a confirmation e-mail save a copy to disk or print it out. Set up your own file to make notes of purchase dates, amounts, items ordered, reference numbers etc. Check your bank and credit card statements carefully and if you find any discrepancies, contact your credit card company or bank immediately. Do not provide your credit card details to any Internet site which is not padlocked. When you enter a secure padlocked page, a message should pop up to advise you of this and you will also be warned when you are leaving a secure, encrypted page and returning to standard unpadlocked mode. If you do not get the security advice message automatically on a site, it is possible to verify whether a site is padlocked visually by looking for the picture of a padlock at the bottom of the browser screen or you can go to your browser's address bar and check the address. Secure padlocked sites will change the "HTTP://" part of the address to "Https://" (the "S" indicating "secure"). If you would like the peace of mind of only using accredited Websites that have been approved by the "Which" Web Trader Scheme, you can guarantee security and consumer protection by only using UK sites which are listed at: www.which.net/webtrader which will provide more information and a list of approved, compliant shopping sites. (Note that last time I tried the above site it was not available due to reconstruction. Hopefully,it will soon become available again.) 3.2.2. Ensuring that Your Online Transaction details are Not Automatically Saved to Disk If you share a computer with someone else or if you are online for long periods and do not have a firewall to prevent hackers, others may be able to get access to your online transaction details, such as your bank account or credit card information. You can stop details of such transactions from being save to your hard disk by Internet Explorer in the temporary internet files folder (which would normally automatically happen) by: 1. Press ALT T (for Tools) and then O (for Internet Options). 2. Then CONTROL TAB to the "Advanced" property sheet. 3. Now ARROW down the long list of checkable options you will be in to "Do Not Save Encrypted Pages to Disk" and press SPACEBAR to check this on. 4. Lastly, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. Henceforth any secure (HTTPS) Website you have visited and possibly provided personal and/or financial details on will not be saved to your hard disk. BE aware, though, that you will also not now be able to view these pages offline as you would have been able to do otherwise. 3.3. UK Consumer Home Shopping Rights The under-mentioned UK internet shopping consumer laws applied as of January 2002 but may be subject to future amendment by Government so, if any aspect is very important to you, double- check it with Government sources, e.g. the Department of Trade and Industry. UK laws for shopping on the Internet apply to most goods and services but some areas are not covered, such as sale of land contracts, online auctions and financial services. Perishable goods, for instance, flowers, food and beverages may also not be covered. There may also only be partial cover of items such as transport and accommodation provided on specific dates. A seller should provide descriptions of goods/services, prices including all taxes and delivery charges, arrangements for payment and delivery, your rights to cancel and who will be responsible for the cost of returning goods. If you agree to purchase something, you should receive a letter, Fax or e-mail in confirmation and detailing your consumer rights. All after sales services and guarantees should be included. You have, by law, a seven working days cooling-off period during which you can freely change your mind and cancel your order. This is seven working days from agreeing to buy a service or from receiving a good. To cancel an order, a phone call is not sufficient; you will need to do this in writing, by Fax or by e- mail. However, if your purchase was for a service to start before the end of the cooling-off period, then the cooling-off period is cancelled. No cooling-off period will attach to computer software, video or audio goods in which the sealed packaging has been opened. If you have already paid, the supplier must return your money within 30 days. If anyone fraudulently misuses your credit card details on the Net, you should inform the credit card issuer immediately. The card issuer must make good your loss by refunding the sum lost to your account. For more advice (and more up-to-date advice) on your UK home shopping consumer rights go to the Citizen's Advice Bureaux site at: www.adviceguide.org.uk There is also a UK DTI consumer rights guide on these issues at: www.consumer.gov.uk If a seller fails to resolve any complaint you may have, you can contact your local Trading Standards via: www.tradngstandards.gov.uk or look them up in the phone book and ring them. When a courier delivers your goods, ensure that you check them before signing for them. Otherwise, make a note at the side of where you sign such as "Goods not examined" or ensure that the delivery man does this for you. 3.4. Cookies and Spyware Cookies can be either useful or wholly undesirable. No, they are not free biscuits, they are small files. 3.4.1. What are Cookies? Cookies are small text files which some Websites copy to your hard disk whilst you are on their Web site. Some cookies are desirable, such as those which record your account details when you are on a site to save you from having to enter them each time you log on or make a future purchase on that site, whilst others are called third-party or tracker cookies and are more like spyware programs and should be avoided if possible. The former type of cookie can normally be accepted or rejected by you, but you may find that the latter sometimes copy themselves to your hard disk without your permission or even letting you know this will occur. This latter kind of spyware cookie can then perform a number of different undesirable tasks and relay information back to the place where you inadvertently picked it up, such as monitoring your Web surfing sessions, tracking the types of purchases you make, etc. It is therefore a good idea to have a cookie removing program or a fully-blown spyware remover on your PC to get rid of the unwanted cookies (see section 6 for where to get Ad-Aware from for this purpose). 3.4.2. Accepting or Rejecting Legitimate Cookies and Controlling them via Internet Explorer When you first go onto a shopping site you may be asked if you want to receive a "cookie". If you are happy that this is a quality site which you are likely to want to use in future, TAB to the YES button and press ENTER to accept it. Otherwise, press N for no. Some sites will not allow you to use them if you do not accept a cookie, which should give you even more reason to doubt the legitimacy of that site and avoid it in future, unless you are absolutely sure that it is bona fide. AS already stated, a ligitimate cookie is a file stored on your hard disk which holds your personal details such as name, address, account number, etc, so that if you revisit this site you will not have to provide this information again. However, be aware that cookies can also be used by online providers to track your Net surfing trends, which may result in you receiving unsolicited e-mail or snail-mail advertising. Some sites copy clandestine third-party or tracker cookies to your hard disk without asking your permission or telling you about this. To use Internet Explorer's in-built cookie control filter instead of or as well as any of the later-mentioned spyware programs you can: 1. Launch Internet Explorer 6. 2. Press ALT T (for Tools) and then O (for Internet Options). 3. CONTROL TAB to the "Privacy" sheet and then TAB to "Advanced" and press SPACEBAR. 4. Press SPACEBAR to check on "Overwrite Automatic Cookie Handling". Then: A. TAB once to a list of three options for first-party cookie handling. These are: accept, block and prompt. The first of these lets all first-party cookies onto your hard disk (only allows cookies directly from the current site and not any from third- party sites you are not currently on), the second stops all cookies and the third (recommended for proper control of cookies without stopping them all) will ask you to say yes or no to allowing a cookie from the current site. B. TAB once again to another list of the same three options but this time for third-party cookies, i.e. cookies not directly from the current site but permitted onto your hard disk from any other site associated with this site--possibly market trends/goods purchasing and advertising tracking cookies. ARROW to your preference, e.g. to block all such usually unwanted cookies or to again ensure that you are at least prompted and can choose yes or no to each of these. C. Then TAB once more to "Always Allow Session Cookies" and check this on with the SPACEBAR if you are willing to allow cookies onto your PC for the current session you are in on that Website but which will then be removed after that session or leave it unchecked if you still want to be prompted, for instance, before these cookies are let onto your hard disk, depending on your choices in the last two steps. 5. Then TAB to "OK" twice and press ENTER on each. Note: You may find that asking for a prompt before a cookie is allowed on your hard disk causes you to have to choose yes or no too often and is more trouble than it is worth. This can happen very frequently on some Websites. You may, in this case, wish to accept all cookies and run a cookie/spyware remover regularly to get rid of the undesirable ones instead of asking for a prompt (see Section 6 below). Additionally, some sites will not let you proceed on them unless you firstly accept their cookies--make your own decision on this based on your knowledge about the site/company and its quality and bona fides. 3.4.3. Exporting and Importing Your Desirable Cookies for Use on another Computer With Internet Explorer, you can save and/or export both Internet Favourites and cookies for use on another computer, on another browser on your current computer or simply to have a back-up copy of them if you wish. You can even copy them to a disk and take them with you elsewhere. 3.4.3.1. Saving/Exporting Cookies For example, to export and save a copy of your list of cookies contents into one single text file: 1. Launch Internet Explorer from your Desktop and then press ALT F (for File) and then I (for Import and Export), and then TAB to and press ENTER on "Next". 2. You will now be in a list containing four choices, namely to import or export favourites or to import and export cookies. ARROW to "Export Cookies" and press ENTER. 3. You are likely to be on the "Export to a File" option and you can TAB through several options and information fields, e.g. the default place your cookies' details will normally save to will be in your My Documents folder with the filename "cookies.txt", but you can type another path and filename in here to save to if you like. Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. Note that if you have more than one Internet browser available on your computer, you may also have a second exporting option available at this stage, which will be to export to another application. 4. Lastly, TAB to and press ENTER on "finish" and then on "OK". Note 1: At step 2 above, if you had of chosen "Export Favourites", you would have been able to save copies of your saved favourites folder Websites for reinstallation if you ever lost them or for copying onto another PC elsewhere, such as your laptop. Note 2: for some strange reason, if you try to view the contents of your "cookies.txt" file in such as Notepad, your screenreader is unlikely to be able to "see" anything in it but the text contained within each separate cookie will, nonetheless, be in their. The text will typically be on single, double or triple lines, each cookie's entry being separated from the others by a blank line. If you are familiar with DOS, you will be able to view this with the DOS type command. Otherwise, you should be able to view it in a word-processor like MS Word but when you close the word-processor down, do not resave the file, because if you do this the formatting of the text file will change and it will become useless as a back-up and restorable cookies file. 3.4.3.2. Importing or Restoring Cookies to a Browser You can now import (restore) the above cookies file to your Internet Explorer cookies folder list or to another browser on another computer by: 1. On your current or another computer, go through the same procedure as outlined in the last sub-section but at step 3 select "Import Cookies" to overwrite the cookies list on that other machine with your saved cookies list. 2. If you have saved your cookies other than in the default My documents folder, use the "Browse" button to go to where it is. If you are importing the cookies into Internet Explorer on a different computer, you should have copied the cookies.txt file to a floppy disk or CD first and then browse to the file on that disk. 3. Lastly, TAB to and press ENTER on "Finish". 3.5. Description of Typical Online Shopping Store Purchase Forms Shopping sites can vary greatly but when you first transact business with an online shop you are likely to be asked for your name and to provide a password of your own creation. When doing this, if you do not remember passwords very well, use lower case letters so that you do not forget which letters you capitalised and which you left small. However, if you can remember these facts, it is certainly more secure to make some letters small and others capitalised in a password. You will probably have to enter this password twice before it is accepted. You will then have other form-type details to provide such as your postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, etc. These forms may have combinations of editfields, pick lists, check boxes (use the SPACEBAR to check a box on or off), etc. You use the standard keystrokes of TAB key to move forward through form elements and SHIFT TAB to go back. When the form is complete, TAB to the "Submit" or "Go" button and either press SPACEBAR or ENTER. If you are presented with another dialogue box to do with security matters, accept this by pressing ENTER on "OK", or you may have had to do this before reaching the form completion stage. If, on a form, you encounter a list of choices or a combobox which combines an editfield and a list of choices, it is usually good practice to press ALT down ARROW before you start to down ARROW through the list to ensure that the list opens up for you first and you do not mistakenly select the wrong option. Any personal details editfields which you may be presented with may simply require you to type such as your date of birth in as "12/08/1966 or they may expect you to type your day of birth in the first field, automatically move you to the second field for your month of birth and then move you to the year of your birth field for you to type this in as 1966. Alternatively, you may have to TAB from one date of birth field to another manually. Yet another frequent possibility is that your date of birth (or similar information requirements fields) may supply a list of the days of the week, months of the year, etc, for you to ARROW down and leave focus on before TABBING on to the next field. At this juncture, (after registering with the site) you should be able to browse around the online store but be aware that the layout and format of stores can vary greatly. You can choose items you wish to buy, which will mean that they will be added to your "Shopping Basket" or "Shopping Cart", following which you should TAB to the "Check Out". At this stage you will be asked for your credit card details and you can provide these each time you make a purchase or you may be able to check a box for the site to permanently record these in a cookie. You will more than likely then encounter a credit card list to ARROW up and down to put focus on your own type of card,such as VISA, then TAB on to a credit card number editfield to type in your card number. Next will come listboxes asking you for the expiry date of your card, from which you can pick the month and year of expiry. You may then be asked for your credit card issue number. You then TAB on to the "Submit" button and press ENTER. The site is likely to be able to record the above details in a cookie it puts on your hard disk so that you will not have to enter most of these next time you make a purchase. Note: With most screenreaders, when you encounter one of the above form completion editfields, you may have to press ENTER to go into forms mode before you can successfully type details in. HAL 6.03 and later requires you to press CAPSLOCK ENTER and should thereafter change from MSAA mode to forms mode automatically and back again as required. 3.6. Shopping Online--Three Step by Step Practical Examples of Making a Purchase with General Screenreaders to Work Through Provided that you have a reasonably up-to-date and good quality screenreader such as JAWS, HAL or Window-Eyes, you should be able to use it to achieve the two below example Website online purchase routines. 3.6.1. The UK Cobolt Systems Products for the Blind Site The Cobolt Systems site is designed to be accessible to screenreader users and so is a relatively straightforward shopping site to use and is not too large for shopping site beginners to tackle. To make a purchase online you would: 1. Launch your Web browser, e.g. Internet Explorer. 2. Press CONTROL O to bring up the Open dialogue and then type the Cobolt site address in of: www.cobolt.co.uk and press ENTER. 3. After a short wait the Cobolt Welcome home page will load in and you can then either ARROW or TAB down to view the links and general text on it. Have a look at some of the associated pages, such as "About Us", "News Page" and "Terms and Conditions", etc, by pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on the links to them. Keep returning to the home page by pressing ALT left ARROW when you have finished viewing these sub-pages or press ENTER on the "Return to Cobolt Systems Home Page" link. Note that you have to have cookies switched on to use this site and you can select to have the site displayed with white text on a black background or vice versa. Remember, your screenreader will feature special hot keys to permit you to move quickly from one kind of element on a Web page to another, such as between links, editfields, lists, etc (see the appropriate sub-section above under the main heading of "JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Special Web Page Navigation Hot Keys" to learn these hot keys for your own screenreader and for the general Windows shortcuts). 4. To make a purchase, for example, of their talking colour detector, ARROW or TAB to "Online Shop" and press ENTER or SPACEBAR. 5. On the Online Shop page, which now opens up, you can ARROW or TAB down links which will take you to further pages with information about given categories of products, such as "Batteries/Accessories", "Clocks and Watches", etc. When the "Personal Items" link has focus, press ENTER. You may be able to get here more quickly by using your screenreader's find hot key, e.g. CONTROL SHIFT F with Window-Eyes, CONTROL INSERT F with JAWS and F3 with HAL, and typing in "personal". 6. Now, on the new page which loads in, ARROW down the textual information on that page. You should then note that each individual item for purchase is listed in columnar form with three columns as follows: a link with the name of the product associated with it, followed by another link to see a picture of the product and lastly the price of purchasing one item is given. On the next line you will find a brief description of the product and what it is designed to do. Either press your TAB key several times until you reach "Talking Colour Detector" or use your screenreader's or browser's find feature to jump straight to the word "colour". Press ENTER or SPACEBAR on the "Talking Colour Detector" link. 7. The next page will come up and you should ARROW down the more detailed description of the colour detector and how it works. Note that there are links to click or press ENTER on to hear (in several languages) the type of speech you will get when using the detector. As you move down the talking colour detector page you will eventually come upon the price it will cost and below this a "Quantity" heading with, just below it, an editfield displaying the quantity of items you want to purchase. It will already have the quantity of 1 inserted, as this is the number most people want to buy, but you can press ENTER on this editfield and then press the DELETE key to remove this figure and then type in however many of them you would like if you want more than one. Now TAB to "Add to Basket" and press ENTER to add the item or items to your shopping basket. 9. Another page will now load in showing how many items are currently in your shopping basket in columns. The number of items will be shown and how much they will cost. If you decide you wish to change the number of items you want to buy, you can go to the number of items field, press ENTER or SPACEBAR to open it up (or whatever method your particular screenreader uses) and then delete the current figure and replace it with the new quantity. You then TAB to the "Update Basket" link and press ENTER or SPACEBAR. There are also buttons in here to remove particular items and to completely empty the shopping basket if you decide you no longer want any of your original choices. After making your item and quantity selections, you TAB to the "Purchase" button and press ENTER, SPACEBAR or left click on it. 10. A secure connection page will now load in to keep your personal details and credit card information hidden from the view of others and you have to press ENTER on an "OK" button. On this new page you have to make one of a number of personal circumstances declarations, e.g. whether you are a UK registered disabled person, a UK organisation working with disabled people, a person from abroad, etc. The default selection is number 1, i.e. that you are a UK-based person who is registered disabled and therefore exempt from payment of VAT. You can ARROW down the other choices and select one of these if option 1 is not appropriate to you. TABBING on from here permits you to provide your personal details in separate editfields, e.g your name, company, address, etc. You may have to press ENTER on the first of these editfields before you can start to type text into any of them to get into the correct mode with your screenreader. The country details you give is part of a listbox which you can ARROW up and down in until you get to your own country or press the first letter of its name to jump to it. There is also a "Special" or "Special Delivery Instructions" editfield if you want to ask Cobolt to take non-standard action for you, e.g. "Do not despatch the item before 31/3/05 as I will be on holiday up to that date". Now TAB to the "Continue" button and press ENTER. 11. The "Final Purchase Approval" page now loads in and confirms what you have ordered, how many of each item and the total amount which will be deducted from your credit card. There is an "Existing Account Holders" editfield for you to enter your name in if you already have an account with Cobolt, so that all your personal and credit card details are remembered and you do not have to provide these when you use the site in future. This will save much time with subsequent purchases. Under this you will TAB to a list of the five types of credit cards which Cobolt are able to accept, which are Master Card, Visa cards, Switch, etc. You will have to open this list to be able to ARROW up and down it and leave focus on the type of card you use, which can normally be done by simply pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on it. As you ARROW or TAB down the various editfields you will note that your details are automatically entered for you from information you have already given. The next press of TAB should take you to one of four small editfields where you start to type in your 16 digit credit card number, so type the first four numbers in the first field, press TAB, type the next four digits in the second field, press TAB to the next field and continue until the last field is completed. TABBING again once or twice takes you to two date listboxes for your card issued date details but you need only complete these if you are using a Switch card. TAB again to the "Expire" listbox and then ARROW down to the month your card is set to expire on, e.g. 04 for April, then TAB again and in the next list ARROW down to the year of expiry, e.g. 2008. Keep on TABBING through the completed details editfields until you reach "Purchase Order" and then press ENTER or SPACEBAR. 12. The last page which now loads in is the "Purchase Confirmation" page. This will provide an order reference number which you should note and write down somewhere. It will be something like: GEB-5A-XKV". You have now completed your purchase and should receive your goods in a few days. This page also has a "Continue Shopping" link on it in case you now decide you want to go back and do some more shopping if you forgot something. You do not receive an e-mail confirmation from this company. 13. If you fail to complete any relevant information whilst making your order, you will be presented with another page advising you of this and inviting you to return to an earlier page to complete the fields you missed out or the selections you failed to make. You TAB to the "Go Back" button to do this. 3.6.2. The Special Tesco Access Grocery Shopping Site The UK Tesco supermarket online shopping site provides a text only series of pages which are easier to use for screenreader users. However, as of the beginning of April 2005, I have heard that the accessible Tesco site may soon be discontinued, as they are making their main Tesco shopping site more accessible. Currently the two sites do not work exactly the same. Another issue to note at this point in time (which, presumably, will not persist for long) is that if you place items in your shopping basket on the access site but do not purchase them immediately and then return to it later, your selected goods will no longer be in your basket. Strangely, they will have been moved to and saved in your main Tesco access shopping basket instead, from where you can still effect your purchase if you like. Conversely, if you place items in your main Tesco site basket and do not purchase them immediately and then return their, these goods will have disappeared and have been saved in the access site shopping basket! This may all mean, therefore, that before long most of the below special Tesco access shopping site information will become obsolete. One way you may find that you can fix this missing items in basket conundrum is to ensure, when you go onto the Tesco site, that you switch pictures on, as it seems to be this which can cause problems if turned off. You turn the downloading of pictures on in Internet Explorer in Tools, Internet Options, Advanced property sheet and in the list in here ARROW down to "Show Pictures" and press SPACEBAR to turn it on. You may wish to leave things this way if you are on broadband or turn pictures off again after using the Tesco site if you have a dial-up connection. 3.6.2.1. Introduction and General Information In mid-summer 2001 Tesco provided a special series of Web pages as part of their Website to enable people with special needs or slower connections, e.g. visually impaired people, people using mobile phone connections, etc, to be able to more easily use their online grocery shopping and home delivery service. As yet, you can only shop for groceries and not some goods, such as wine and the full range of electrical equipment. However, this may change over time. You cannot pay for these groceries in any other way than by credit card online. You have to live in an area close enough to be covered by a Tesco branch to make delivery feasible and there is a fixed charge for delivery of œ5. Whilst Tesco Access makes shopping quicker and easier for visually impaired people, you do sometimes miss out on several facts and opportunities which are available on the main Tesco site, e.g. no information about product ingredients, no access to the main electrical or wine departments, etc. Your shopping can be delivered the next or any subsequent day between the hours of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. from Monday to Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. You can specify a delivery time within any two hour slot, e.g. 5 August from 1200 to 1400 hours. 3.6.2.2. Registering Yourself for Tesco Online Shopping You would provide your details for Tesco registration as follows: 1. With your Internet browser, Go to the Tesco text only shopping home page of: www.tesco.co.uk/access 2. This page has only a few links. It is the Tesco Superstore Login Page and you can TAB to "If you are a new Customer Click Here to Register link". However, before doing this, have a look at some of the other links, such as observing that you also use this page to log on (provide your user password and registration number) if you are already registered with Tesco prior to starting to shop. Press ENTER or SPACEBAR on such information links as "Click here to Find out More About this Service" and "Click Here for Help on the Site", etc. After viewing the details on these pages, go back to the Login page as normal by pressing ALT left ARROW or ALT HOME. 3. Press ENTER on "If you are a New Customer Click Here to Register" and complete your registration details, after pressing ENTER on the "OK" button which the security screen provides. TAB to "Terms and Conditions" and press ENTER on it to be sure that you understand and accept these. After going through these, move back to the registration page with ALT left ARROW and TAB down the page and complete your details, remembering that you may have to press ENTER on the first editfield with JAWS and Window-Eyes to enter forms mode before you can type your details in. HAL 6.03s new forms mode is invoked by pressing CAPSLOCK ENTER. The "Title" field is a listbox, so you just ARROW up or down this until you have focus on your title, e.g. Mrs, Miss, etc, then TAB on to complete the rest of your personal details, such as name and post code. If you have no Club Card number, TAB to a Checkbox under where it would be entered and press ENTER to check this on and create a virtual/temporary number. Then TAB to "Send Details" and press ENTER to complete the first page of your registration information. You will be asked if you want the site to automatically complete your personal details when you go online in future to save you from having to do this and be on the "Yes" option, so just press ENTER to accept this and save yourself time in future. 4. A second personal details page now loads in where you will be told where your nearest Tesco branch is. TAB from the top of the page to an address field which might already have your address in it. If it does not, type your house number and street name in here, Then TAB to "Day Time Phone Number" and complete this plus all of the other editfields. After the e-mail field you will have to make up a password that you wish to use when login on in future of between six and 12 digits, so type this in and then TAB to the next editfield and retype the same password in here to confirm. When typing this password in, you will only hear *stars being spoken, so that no one else can see what you are choosing for your password. After completing all fields, TAB to "Submit" and press ENTER. 5. You will receive a welcome page congratulating you on your successful registration. You will also receive an e-mail confirmation of your registration within a few hours showing your ID number and password but these two registration and login numbers will also be on the screen for you to make a note of at this stage if you wish. Underneath this there is a link to press ENTER on to start shopping immediately but I would suggest that you first go to the "Help" link and activate this for more information on how to use the site first. It may take you 30 to 40 minutes to register, complete all details and observe most of the conditions and usage information. Note: If you have problems registering online in the above way-- but I know that you will not do this because it will nullify the object of this exercise!--you can register by phone by ringing Tesco Customer Services on 0845 7225533. This is not specifically set up to register people by phone but if you explain that you are visually impaired and having difficulty registering online, they can do this for you. They are open 9 a.m to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday. 3.6.2.3. Shopping on the Tesco Site and Paying for Your Goods Basically, you use the Tesco site by login on with your browser, Searching for what you want, specifying what and how many of each item you want, placing the items in the "Basket" and then going to the "Checkout" to purchase them and give your credit card details. So, for example, you would do this by: 1. With your Web browser go to: www.tesco.co.uk/access 2. On this login page you will have to go into your screenreader's edit or forms mode by TABBING to and pressing ENTER on the first of the provided editfields and complete the fields with your ID number or e-mail address and your password. Some of these fields may already be completed if you asked the site to save this information for you, so you may only have to enter your password. Then TAB to "Click Here to Login" and press ENTER. You may get a "Yes" or "OK" button to press ENTER on to accept the login safety terms. 3. You will soon TAB to the "Search for Products" link and press ENTER but first TAB to and have a look at some of the links you can press ENTER on to view your past order history (previous purchases), a link to view your favourite items, plus a "View Your Shopping Basket and Proceed to Checkout" link. There is usually a help link at the top of each page and it is a good idea to activate this the first time you use the site for more detailed guidance. 4. After pressing ENTER on the "Search for Products" link above, you get a welcome page with links to such as "Department" and "Search for a Product". If you press ENTER on the "Department" option, you will enter a page which you can TAB or ARROW through links to given departmental areas of goods, such as bread, beer, baby items, etc. 5. On the "Department" page you are able to go directly to a particular department, followed by a particular aisle, a particular shelf of goods and, eventually, to the precise product you want. Alternatively, you can activate a "Search" editfield by pressing ENTER on it to have a given item found immediately for you which you then have to add to your basket of goods to eventually take to the checkout and pay for by credit card. Using the department/aisle/shelf way of finding things can be slow but will let you know the full range of goods available. The search method is preferable for quick shopping when you know exactly what you want. Remember, if you have pressed ENTER on any given link to view what is on the next page, you can always press ALT left ARROW to take you back to the previous page. 6. If you ARROW to the "Search for a Product" heading and go to the editfield just below this and press ENTER to open it up, you can then type such as "apples", "sausages", etc, to have the full range of one of those items displayed below on a results page. Do not use words like "the" or "and" in the search string, e.g. do not search for such as "apples and sausages". Then TAB to and press ENTER on the "search" button after typing your search item's name in the editfield above this. 7. When you are at the level where the individual goods, such as different types of loaves of bread or apples, are listed, you will be given information on each good as follows: Description, price and quantity. In the "Quantity" editfield you type in the number of individual items or packets/boxes of that item you want. Each time you type the amount of an item you want in this editfield you should press ENTER, when it will be automatically added to your shopping basket and this will be confirmed. You can now TAB to and press ENTER on "Go Back to Previous List" and add more items in the same way if you like. 8. If you want to be sure that you have got everything you want, the correct amount and nothing you did not want, TAB to "View Your Shopping Basket and Proceed to Checkout" and press ENTER. Here the quantity, product, price and total of what you have put into your basket for purchase are listed. Each individual item price is shown and the full total which will later have the œ5 delivery (or whatever they may change this to) charge added. 9. If you decide that you want to change the number of items of a particular product you want or get rid of a product altogether, you can just press ENTER on the "Quantity" field to go into forms mode and then delete the number currently shown and type the new amount in followed by TABBING to "Update Basket" and pressing ENTER. To remove an item from the basket, just delete the figure and type in a 0. Then press ENTER to have the basket updated. 10. Near the bottom of the page, you can TAB to "Checkout Your Order" and press ENTER or SPACEBAR on this to finish your purchase by providing your credit card details for payment. You are told that the cash transaction is done in a secure environment and have to press ENTER on OK. The cost will again be shown and you now provide the following details: A. TAB to "Please Select a Delivery Slot" and ARROW down through the choices. They have a day and two hour delivery time slot. Go into forms mode by pressing ENTER and put the focus on the day/time you want and then TAB to the next field. B. In the next field you type in the persons full name who owns the credit card. Then TAB to and complete the other fields one by one. Note that the "Expiry Date" field is a dropdown list which you ARROW up and down in until your credit card month of expiry is revealed, e.g. 04 for April; then TAB once to do the same for the year expiry date, e.g. 05 for 2005. C. Lastly, TAB to "Send Your Order" and press ENTER or SPACEBAR to finalise the purchase. 11. Notice, at the end of many pages, there is a "Logout" link which you should press ENTER on before leaving the site. 12. Now,if you have finished surfing, exit your browser as normal and close it down, e.g. with ALT F4 or ALT F and then C. All you need now do is prey that the Tesco delivery man does not turn up the following day with 480 tins of baked beans! Note 1: The Tesco site has many more features not covered here, so experiment by activating the links. The above should, however, provide enough to get you going and stop you from starving! Note 2: If you regularly buy certain commodities on the Tesco site, you can build up "Favourites" and speed up shopping by block selecting these followed by any extra purchases you need. Note 3: The standard Tesco home page for general public use is at: www.tesco.co.uk and if you want to see what is on the Tesco page which offers goods other than groceries, e.g. wine, books, DVDs, Cds, electrical items, etc, go to: www.tesco.co.uk/extra but be aware that these are not text only access pages and will be full of graphical pictures for people to look at. 3.6.3. The Amazon Website The following walks you through the standard famous Amazon online-only Internet store to buy a print book: NB: The Amazon site is a massive and therefore difficult site to navigate and make sense of with a screenreader. It has hundreds of links on its home page and features both new and second-hand goods, including books, music Cds, garden equipment, mobile phones, and the like. To have any chance on this site you need a good dedicated Web browser like PWWebspeak, Webbie or Home Page Reader or an up-to-date general screenreader because your whereabouts can be much clearer and the search forms, editfields and "Submit" buttons are found much easier than with older screenreaders. You will need such as JAWS 4X, Window-Eyes 4.2 or HAL 6 or later. Additionally, depending on which screenreader you possess and which version of it, after pressing ENTER on a given link or button, you may find yourself partway down the next page on the next link or editfield you require or you may find yourself back at the top of the next page and have to ARROW or TAB down the header links to where you next want to be. To make a purchase on the Amazon site: 1. Run Internet Explorer and press CONTROL O, then type in: www.amazon.co.uk (for the UK) or www.amazon.com (for the US) and press enter. 2. The page will open and you can press CONTROL END to the bottom of the home page and then press SHIFT TAB about 15 times until you reach a "Text Only" link and press ENTER to go straight to the text only page to avoid graphics. Alternatively, on this large page you will find it worthwhile employing your screenreader's list links feature to jump quickly to the above- mentioned "Text Only" link, for example, with JAWS press INSERT F7 and in the list of links you are now in simply start typing the word "text" and you will be taken straight to the link in question to press ENTER on it and load the text only page. The Window-Eyes links list is opened with INSERT TAB. The HAL links list for HAL before version 5.02 is open with ALT T and press ENTER on "Dolphin Links Navigator" and for later versions of HAL you are provided with the Dolphin Links Utility to list links on a Web page by pressing CAPSLOCK 1 but you will then have to repeatedly press the T key until you get to the "Text Only" link as typing "text" in will not jump you straight there. There are many header links on most pages on this site before you get down to the new information which opens up when you get to a new page, so use your PAGE down key once or twice to skip past much of this repeated information. If you like, to get an idea of the size of this home page and where things are, ARROW down from the top of the text only home page and listen to its contents and vast size until you reach the bottom. Note: with some screenreaders you may have to go into navigation/mouse mode to be able to ARROW down a page and may have to press PAGE down to obtain the next screenful of information. 3. Now go to the top of the home page with CONTROL HOME and ARROW down several times to the category of item you want to buy, e.g. the "books" link, and press ENTER. 4. After the next page loads in, you should already be on a search link called "Book Search" to press ENTRE on. If not, it comes about 16 TAB presses down from the top of the page. You will now be in the next page and on an "author" editfield and you should press ENTER to go into forms and editing mode. If you are not automatically on this editfield, TAB down to it or use your screenreader's jump to first editfield hot key, e.g. CONTROL INSERT HOME in JAWS and ALT Control down ARROW or just the X key in Window-Eyes from the top of the page. you now type in to this field the details of what you wish to have searched for, e.g. an author's name, such as Charles Dickens. Now immediately press ENTER or press the TAB key again until you reach the "Search Now" button and press ENTER or SPACEBAR to find these books, both should do the job. 5. You will be at the top of the page with all of the annoying header links below again, so you should skip past these again by pressing PAGE down once or twice and by ARROWING down a few times, when you will then find All Dickens' books supplied by Amazon will be displayed in all formats and you can ARROW down them and press ENTER on any book title link to bring up a details page called "At a Glance". 6. The At a Glance page will allow you to view such as editors' reviews on the book you chose, customers' comments about it, what Amazon's price for it is, and so forth. You can even give a book on their site a rating from one to five yourself if you have read it and want to do this. 7. Now press ALT left ARROW to return to the last page you were on and then ARROW down a few times to a "Add to Basket" link if you want to buy this book and add it to your shopping basket to be paid for shortly. Do this with each book you want to buy. Then ARROW down a lot more to the "Proceed to check Out" button and press ENTER or jump to it with your screenreader's find feature, e.g. CONTROL INSERT F with JAWS, CONTROL SHIFT F with Window-Eyes and F3 with HAL . Note that the Amazon site and checkout button changed in the last quarter of 2004 and with some screenreaders you may not be able to activate the Checkout button without first going to it and then going into Jaws or navigation mode and routing your cursers together before pressing your screenreader's simulate left mouse click button. 8. If you already have an account set up with Amazon, you will be thanked for your order and your name and the fact that the book will be sent to you will be confirmed. 9. If this is your first Amazon purchase, you will have a form to complete with your personal details , so TAB to the first editfield, which is the e-mail address field, and press ENTER to go into forms mode before typing it in. Then TAB to and complete the other fields in this way with the requested personal details and ARROW to the "I am a New Customer" option if you are not already on it. Then TAB to the "Sign In" button and press ENTER and also press ENTER on the security "OK" button when this comes up. After the above stage, you have to provide such as credit card details and you can create a password for future use here. 10. After completing the above form, you should then TAB to the "Submit" button and press ENTER to confirm. If you find this providing of personal details stage in these forms to be difficult, you might like to get sighted help at this stage. Thereafter, as someone who is signed on with all pertinent details recorded with Amazon and a password, it will be much easier to pay for your goods in future. 11. You will be advised that your order has been accepted and that you need do no more. The process is now at an end and you should receive your book in a few days. Note 1: If you want, in future, to skip the Amazon graphics home page and go directly to the text only home page, at step 1 above, you can simply type the below into the Internet Explorer Address Bar: www.amazon.co.uk/text or www.amazon.com/text Note 2: Because the Amazon Web site is so large, you would be advised to use your screenreader's place marker feature, if it has one, to mark where certain links, editfields and buttons are to be able to get to them quickly in future, e.g. CONTROL SHIFT K with JAWS. Note 3: Do not forget that if you get stuck or a little frustrated with this or any other Web site and if you do not have a broadband Internet connection and want to be able to take more time over finding your way around it without being online running up a phoned bill, you can always open as many pages on a site as interest you and then come offline. You can then re-launch Internet Explorer and type www.amazon.co.uk/text into the Address Bar and then press left ALT key and O when your Dial-Up Networking dialogue comes up to abort going onto the Net and instead load in the pages you have already displayed on the site and run them and move between them. They are all held on your hard disk in your Internet Explorer history folder, although any HTTPS:// pages will not be their if you turned off the saving of these types of pages for security reasons. 3.7. Step by Step PWWebspeak Dedicated Web Browser Example of Making a Purchase on the Amazon Site PWWebspeak is a dedicated and independent Web browser for visually impaired users. It comes complete with its own speech capability, so you do not require any other screenreader working along with it. It used to be a purchasable program but is now given away freely, although it is not kept updated by its makers. It works well on basic Websites. To download a free copy of PWWebspeak, go to: www.soundlinks.com/pwgen.htm You should then install PWWebspeak as normal, read its Readme.txt files and provided manual, etc, and when familiar with the basics of how it works, use it as follows. 1. Start up PWWebspeak and press F2 to open up the address editfield. Type in: www.amazon.co.uk or www.amazon.co.uk/text and press ENTER. 2. The Amazon home page will load in and you can either TAB forward or ARROW down the information and links until PWWebspeak speaks a "Books" link. Press ENTER on this and the books page will load in. 3. Now TAB to a "Book Search" link and press SPACEBAR. 4. TAB until PWWebspeak says "Start of a Data Entry Form and "TAB again until "A Single Line Text Entry Field" is spoken and press ENTER. Then enter the key words for the search, such as the author's name, book title, etc, e.g. Charles Dickens, then TAB to the "Go" button and press the SPACEBAR to submit the search string. 5. The full list of Dickens' books will be displayed and you can ARROW down through these and also see what formats they are in, such as paperback. If you press ENTER on the title David Copperfield, the "At a Glance" page will open where you can view reviews, customer comments, etc, about this book. 6. You will have to ARROW OR TAB down to get to the "Add to Shopping Basket" link and press SPACEBAR to add this book for purchase. 7. You should now ARROW down to the "Proceed to Check Out" button and press the SPACEBAR. 8. The check out page will load with guarantees and instructional information on it. You should ARROW down to a form where you will have to enter your personal details, select the "New Customer" button by ARROWING to it and press ENTER on the "Sign In" button to create a password, etc. You will then have your credit card details, card expiry date, etc, to provide, before submitting this information with the submit button. 9. You will be advised that your order has been accepted and that you need do no more. The process is now at an end and you should receive your book in a few days. 3.8. E-Wallets Internet forms can be difficult and time-consuming to complete, so some online stores permit you to set up an account with your personal details to speed up online shopping for frequent shoppers (as indicated in the above paragraphs in respect of cookies and online forms). However, a more convenient and flexible alternative to this is to use an "e- wallet", where all of your personal details are stored on your PC for transfer to a vendor's server quickly and easily. For example, Microsoft's offering in this field is called "Wallet" and is built into Internet Explorer 4 and above, but for it to work a vendor must agreed to participate in the scheme. Thus, e- wallets are not globally accepted by online shops and so have limited use, and may not be available in your version of Internet Explorer. I only mention them here for informational purposes. 3.9. UK and US Shopping Price Comparison Sites A UK-based prices comparison site for shopping is: www.Shopsmart.com This site ensures that you find the best price for an item by automatically comparing prices it has on books, music, DVDs, computer software, food and drink, etc, across various Websites. It then lists the prices it finds for you, so that you can get the best deal available. Shopsmart also has links to over 2,000 secure UK online shops for you to jump to. Other UK comparison Websites of interest on an energy saving theme are: www.energywatch.org.uk www.ukpower.co.uk Some equivalent US prices Comparison sites can be found at: www.pricewatch.com www.computershopper.com www.shopping.com www.lowermybills.com and Yahoo has a prices comparison search feature on its e- commerce page found at: www.yahoo.com 3.10. Some good Places to Find Online Shops Try surfing to and browsing through some of the below offerings. 3.10.1. The Amazon Shop www.amazon.co.uk (In the UK) or www.amazon.com (in the US) This has a vast choice of print books, music Cds and other goods and quick delivery. When on this site you can search for a book by its title, author, publisher or date, or peruse through the various categories of books. Sometimes only best-sellers are listed but other titles can also be purchased. You can complete the transaction and obtain delivery with a single click after registering, providing your home address and credit card number. If you change your mind, you can cancel the order online within 90 minutes. You can also store titles in your "shopping basket" for up to 90 days before finally deciding if you want them. Each book has a short write-up and there may be e-mail or Amazon editors reviews and customers comments. The site's search facility finds and mixes together audio books, hard backs and paper backs. Books can be gift- wrapped. Purchase of single items is likely to work out dearer than standard retail shopping but buying several books at once may work out cheaper. You can also purchase other items such as Cds and hear music online. Delivery is likely to be within two or three days and your order confirmation should be e-mail to you within ten to twenty hours. Early in 2004 Amazon created an ability on their site for people to view the whole content of a book before purchase. To be taken step by step through the Amazon site to purchase an item with both general screenreaders and the PWWebspeak dedicated Internet browser, see the examples earlier in this section. 3.10.2. The Cdnow Shop www.cdnow.com This US-based online shop sells CDs, DVDs and videos. You can sample selected tracks using streaming audio and download MP3s. The Web page has a list of options on the left and on the right special offers and many links. Cds cost about 30 per cent less than UK prices but may take up to five weeks to be delivered to the UK. 3.10.3. The Emusic Shop www.emusic.com This is a site where you can hear and buy music online. 3.10.4. The Expedia Shop www.Expedia.co.uk This UK Microsoft site permits you to book a flight, holiday, rent a car and obtain travel related information. You can use the flight wizard to search for available seats on given flights. You can compare available flight prices for a particular journey. The Places Section is an information magazine. The Resources Section provides information on insurance and health requirements. You can reserve a flight until midnight the following day. After placing an order you should receive an e-mail confirmation in ten to twenty hours and the tickets should arrive within a few days. 3.10.5. The Train Enquiry Shop www.thetrainline.com You can check UK train times, reserve seats, buy tickets and obtain rail-related information from this site. 3.10.6. The Index and Argos Shops www.indexshop.com and www.argos.co.uk These are the sites of the Argos and Index retailers which are found throughout the UK and also have many high street outlets supplying a full range of household, clothing and other goods. 3.10.7. The Cdwow Shop www.cdwow.co.uk Provides a UK site to purchase cheap music CDs, videos and DVDs without incurring a delivery charge. ******** >SECTION 4 ONLINE AUCTIONS Another aspect of online shopping--but with a different and more participative feel about them--are the online auction sites. You can get genuine bargains at some of these but others do no more than sell high street suppliers' goods at a reserve price equal to the shop price and if you bid more you end up paying more than the shop prices. If you bid for an item and win it, you have entered into a legally binding contract as normal. Some such auctions are as follows but first make yourself aware of some of the basic Website auction terminology. 4.1. Auction terminology Bid: When you offer an amount of money for an item, you are said to have made a "bid" for it. Hammer Fall: When the exact time for the auction to end on a given lot is reached the sale of that item is complete and the highest bidder wins the item (provided that any reserve price has been reached) and the "hammer" is said to fall at that time in favour of the highest bidder. Maximum Autobid: This is whereby you tell the auction site the maximum amount you are prepared to go up to for an item and when your last bid is beaten the system will automatically bid up for you by just enough to secure the item, until your maximum bid is reached, when it will then duck out for you. Lot: A lot is the name given to an item being bid for. Reserve: Some items in an auction have no reserve price and so can sell at the highest bid irrespective of how low that might be. However, some items will have a "reserve" put on them so that they will not sell if the highest bid is below that reserve. Win: If you make the highest bid for an item in an auction and it becomes your property, you are said to "win" that item. 4.2. Different Types of Online Auctions There are a large number of online auction sites these days and you can buy anything in the world from many of them. Have a general browse around some of the below examples. 4.2.1. The QXL Auction Site www.qxl.com QXL is a UK site where you can bid for anything from antiques and holidays to computer equipment. This is not really a bona fide auction, as they sell many things direct from new suppliers, so be sure you are getting good value before bidding over a certain price. You will have to register and give your credit card details to take part in substantial auction bidding but you can bid for second-hand goods without submitting your credit card details first. QXL auctions normally go on for a period of five to seven days but if you want something you should pay particular attention to the bids in the last hour or two of bidding. You can also use the maximum auto-bid facility, whereby you enter the maximum amount you are prepared to go up to and when your last bid is beaten the system will automatically bid up for you by just enough to secure the item, until your maximum bid is reached, when it will then duck out for you. If you need more information about a lot before deciding whether or not to bid, such as a better description, warranty details, etc, e-mail the company for this first. If you win a lot in the auction, you will receive an e-mail confirmation of your bid price and the cost of post and packaging on top. Your credit card will be debited automatically straightaway. The good should arrive in a few days by carrier. If the goods are not in good order when delivered, you should contact the company within 24 hours to complain. ask for a replacement and if none is available insist on a cash refund rather than accepting a credit note. If you have to ask for your money back, be sure to include any cost of posting the goods back to the company as well. If you have problems with auction companies, you have the same recourse to Trading Standards as usual, e.g. if the goods do not match the auction description. Most auction sites work very similarly to QXL, although many deal almost exclusively in second-hand goods and so these will be proper auctions where you can obtain many bargains--but also many bad deals, so be careful. Some other auction sites you may wish to look at are detailed below. 4.2.2. The Morgan Auction Site www.morgan-auctions.co.uk This is where new end-of-the-line and second-hand PCs and computer accessories and goods like mobile phones and dictaphones are sold off. Morgan do not have reserve prices, so you can get genuine bargains here. Morgan have a few high street shops where you can pick up your goods from or take them back to if they are faulty. Morgan give their own warranties on goods they sell. I walk you through using this auction site in an example at the end of this section. 4.2.3. The Free Serve Auction Site www.freeserveauctions.co.uk Here is Freeserve's auction site, with a wide range of goods such as new and second-hand computer hardware, holidays, etc, and you can even bid for personal lots from other members of the public registered with the site. Since Wanadoo took over Freeserve, their auction site has changed and much of it now links to the Ebay auction site. 4.2.4. The American Blind Treasures Auction Site www.blindtreasures.com/auction Here is an auction site set-up in September 2002 specifically for blind people to auction anything they like, not just IT equipment. There are no charges and the site simply provides an interface to bring competitive buyers and sellers together. It is US-based, so not everything may be suitable for UK participants to bid for, e.g. mains Electrical goods may have a different power rating and the cost of shipping goods may make it uneconomical to purchase them. 4.2.5. The Ebay Auction Site www.ebay.co.uk (in the UK) or www.ebay.com (in the US) Ebay, in the last couple of years, has become the world's biggest online auction site. You can buy and sell just about anything on Ebay's auction sites and you can pay for your goods using Ebay's own secure payment system called Paypal. Ebay has all of the procedures and notification systems that you would expect from a top auction site. 4.2.6. The Nochex Auction site www.nochex.co/uk Nochex is not itself an auction site. It is a service for paying money over electronically, instead of using a paper cheque or credit card, just like Paypal is. However, on the Nochex site, you will find a list of UK-based auction sites to surf to and examine for more information about auction sites and to try your hand in bidding, etc, if you like. 4.3. Step by Step Example of Using an Online Auction--The Morgan Site To use the Morgan computer auction site you must sign up with them and provide your credit card details and choose your own username and password. However, it is possible for anyone to have a look around this site before signing up and placing a bid. What you do is: 1. Launch Internet Explorer (or your browser of choice) and press CONTROL O then type in the Morgan site URL, which is: www.morgan-auctions.co.uk 2. TAB and ARROW through the elements and text on this site and press ENTER or SPACEBAR on some links to have a good look at the help and information pages which Morgan provide, e.g. "Customer Information", "FAQs", "Terms and Conditions", "Auction History", etc. Keep returning to the home page after reading these sub- pages by pressing ALT left ARROW. 3. Tab (or ARRow down) to "Register to Bid" and press ENTER to register (or do this later if you do not wish to at this stage). The registration form which loads in is basically as follows: A. The registration form comes up and tells you that you are on a Red Kanetics secure page which no one else can view. Press ENTER on OK and then ARROW or TAB down to the "Preferred Username" editfield and press ENTER to go into forms mode to be able to type this in, e.g. JohnW or whatever you like. B. Then TAB to "E-Mail" and ENTER your e-mail address, as they need this to e- mail your registration confirmation back to you and confirmation of any lots you have bid for and won. C. TAB to "First Name" and type your Christian name in as normal, followed by TABBING and completing the rest of the form in the usual way. D. In completing the rest of the information fields you will have to enter your password twice in both fields, sometimes you will have to ARROW up and down multiple selection lists and when you get to the "Expiry Date" field, you first type in the month expiry date of your credit card, e.g. 02 (for February), then TAB to the next field and type in the year expiry date, e.g. 2008. In the "Fax" editfield, if you have no FAX, type your standard voice phone number in, as the site will not accept you leaving this blank or just typing none in. E. You will eventually TAB to the "Submit" button, so press ENTER or SPACEBAR on this to send the completed form to Morgan. Your confirmation e-mail will be returned in a few hours or perhaps the following day. 4. After your username and password confirmation e-mail has been received by you, you can bid by TABBING to the "Current Bid" link on any of the offered lots and by pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on this. If you are outbid by someone later, you will be e-mailed to advise you of this. 5. To get to the "Current Bid" buttons, you have to TAB (or ARROW) down the home page to where you encounter a table with four columns and about ten rows. This is where the lots which are nearest to reaching their final day of bidding are listed. The first column holds an item's name/model number in it, the second column contains the item's brief description, the third column advises you of the date/time the bidding will close and the last column contains the "Current Bid" link and tells you how much the last bidder bid, which is the amount you will have to beat if you are to have any chance of winning the lot. Continuing to ARROW down will reveal more lots with the same four columns of information. Remember, your screenreader may feature a hot key to jump you straight to the first and subsequent tables on a Web page, e.g. pressing T with JAWS and Webbie and pressing ALT CONTROL TAB with Window-Eyes. 6. If you TAB to the "View All Lots" link and press ENTER, you will be able to look at all of the lots currently available for bidding. You just make a bid for one of these in the same way as with the ten or so maturing lots shown on the above home page. 7. Make your bid by pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on the "Current Bid" link, when another page will load in giving you more details about this lot, e.g. if it is a Pc, you will be told such facts as the monitor size, type and amount of RAM, make of CPU, type of sound card fitted, type and number of ports, etc. You will also be told if the item is new or second-hand and how many of this particular item are available. The Morgan warranty period will also be indicated. You may have to bid in multiples of œ10 or whatever this page advises. At this point you will have to go to the username and password fields to enter this information. You can also type a figure in the "Maximum Bid" field to tell the system how much it should automatically bid up to for you before you want to duck out--the bids will go up in œ10 stages in this example. After completing these fields and typing in the amount of your bid, you TAB to the "Bid Now" button and press ENTER. 8. This is the end of your current bid, unless you put a figure in the "maximum Bid" field. You should keep a check on the progress of bidding, especially in the last hour of the bidding period if you really want an item. 9. If you have any problems or want more details on a particular lot, e-mail Morgan or phone them on 0208 5750055. 4.4. Step by Step Example of Using an Online Auction--The US Blind Treasures Site The auction program used on the Blind treasures Website is freeware so is a little limited and inflexible. It is at: www.blindtreasures.com/auction 1. Registering to Bid for Items or to Sell Items A. To use the Blind Treasures auction service you must register your self first by going to the above URL with your browser and then TABBING to the "register Now" link and pressing ENTER. B. You then come onto a page to ARROW or TAB to and go into editing mode and supply several pieces of personal identification information in the following order: firstly "Your Name", which could be your personal name or any other name you want to be known by, e.g. Brian clark; secondly, you TAB once to and type in any username you want to be known as, e.g. BrianClark or spaceman007 (no spaces); and, Thirdly, you TAB once to and type in your desired password. These usernames and passwords must be at least six characters long each and you have to type your password in twice in different places. You will also have to TAB to and supply your e-mail address annd date of birth in 12/11/1966 format. You must also provide your address and telephone number. C. Lastly, TAB to the "Submit Query" button and press ENTER and you should them receive a page advising you that you have successfully registered and get an e-mail confirming this as well. 2. Posting an item for Sale A. To place a lot on the Blind Treasures auction site you go to the usual www.blindtreasures.com/auction home page and then TAB to "Log In" and press ENTER. Partway down the log in page you will encounter two user's log in editfields to press ENTER on to go into editing mode and be able firstly to type your username in, TAB and then type your password in, then press ENTER on "Submit Query". B. Then CONTROL HOME to the top of the next page and TAB down to the "Sell an Item" link and press ENTER. C. You now come onto a page with several editfields, choice lists and checkboxes to deal with by TABBING through them, ARROWING up and down in them and pressing SPACEBAR to check them on or off. Remember, if your screenreader works in this way, to press ENTER on the first of these editfields, called "Item Title", to go into editing mode. You have in these fields to type in such as the title of what you are selling, e.g. Sharp's Talking Clock Calculator. Next you find an editfield to type in a description of what you are selling. TABBING through other fields, which appear in this order, allow you to upload a picture of what you are selling by typing the whereabouts of the URL of the picture you wish to make available for viewing (optional). You can next TAB to and ARROW in a two choice list to pick standard auction or Dutch auction. After this you have to TAB to a "Items Quantity" editfield and accept the "1" default number of items to sell or backspace this out and type in any higher figure which is appropriate. In "Auction Starts With" you can, if you like, specify the lowest amount of money you want the auction to start at, e.g. 50.00 (for 50.00 US dollars) and you can TAB to and ARROW to have "Yes" or "No" selected to specify a reserve price for your lot and type this into the editfield below this choice, e.g. 100.00 (for 100.00 US dollars). TABBING again lets you ARROW and select to use the built-in proportional increments table or select your own custom fixed increment figure, e.g. 10.00 if you want bids of at least 10.00 dollars only to be made each time an improved bid is made. Next you get a list to select either to have a one day, three day or one week long auction and the next thing you get is a list of countries to ARROW through to select your own country of residence followed by typing your zip code or postal code into an editfield just below this list. Next comes a "Shipping Conditions" list to indicate if you are prepared to pay any mailing/postal costs or if you expect the buyer to do so on top of the purchase price and you can press SPACEBAR on a checkbox to indicate if you are prepared to ship the item internationally. Near the end of the form you can TAB through five separate "Payment Methods" checkboxes to press SPACEBAR on if you want to use any or all of these means of accepting payment for your lot, e.g payment by cheque, money order, credit card, etc. Then TAB to the "Choose a Category" list and ARROW down to select a category to put your lot into, e.g. assistive, computers, jewellery, etc and, under this, if there is no suitable category in this list, you can type the title of a new category in to create a new category for your lot. D. Now, after completing all necessary editfields, TAB to the "Submit Query" button and press ENTER. E. You will next come onto another page asking you to confirm your lot submission by supplying your username and password again, well down the page, after viewing your recorded lot details. Supply these and press ENTER again on the "Submit Query" button. F. If you have done everything OK, you will then receive a page advising you of your success and, shortly afterwards, an e-mail confirmation showing your registered details and those of your just submitted lot for sale. This e-mail will confirm the number of days your auction is to be conducted over, when the ending day is and at what time your auction countdown time started, e.g. "14:15" would mean that you submitted your lot for sale at 2.15 p.m. and so, for example, a three day auction would automatically end 72 hours after this time. This 14:15 or 2.15 p.m. auction starting time is, of course, referring to US central time, not UK time and so would be the same as 8.15 p.m. in British summertime. G. After the duration of your auction ends you will automatically receive an e-mail advising you of who has won your lot and of how much they bid for it. This lot winner will also receive a similar e-mail telling them of their success. You and the lot winner will then have to liaise to arrange payment, shipping time/means, etc. You cannot pay for lots you have won via the Blind Treasures site itself. 3. Bidding for an Item To bid for a lot yourself: A. Go onto the Blind Treasures auction site and TAB to the "Log In" link and press ENTER. Then TAB to and supply your username and password as described in the last sub-section. B. Now TAB to the first "Search" editfield to find lots you might be interested in and press ENTER to go into edit mode. In this search field you can type things like someone's name or the title of their lot for sale if you know these things and TAB to "Go" and press ENTER to get them found. A list of lots will appear below for you to view. However, if you do not know such identification details, you can TAB to the second "Search" list, press ENTER and then ARROW up and down this list of item categories to look through. ARROW to such as "Computers" and TAB to and press ENTER on "Go" to open up a page with all of the lots in that category displayed for you to ARROW down and read. C. If you come across a lot you want to put a bid in for, ARROW or TAB to its title line, where there will be a link to its bid submission page, and press ENTER. D. Now that you are on the page to make your bid, you can view such information as how many other people have already viewed this lot, what the current winning bid is and you can activate links to find out more details or even e-mail the seller to ask him/her more questions. To make a higher bid than the current bid you would ARROW to the "Place Your Bid Here" label and then to the editfield just below and go into editing mode, usually by pressing ENTER. Now type your higher bid in here, e.g. 50.00, for 50 US dollars. Now TAB to "Go" or "Submit" and press enteR to submit your bid. After this initial bid, you will be asked on another page to confirm your bid by ARROWING through and checking the lot details and then supplying your username and password and then activating the "Submit Query" button. E. Keep checking the auction site if you really want a given lot, particularly in the last hour of its running time, as most bids are likely to be submitted at that time. The Blind Treasures auction site, in the last of five columns where it supplies you with a lot's details such as lot title, current bid,etc, also advises you in columns four and five of how many days the auction has to run and how many hours, minutes and seconds there are to go, e.g. "Days 2" and "11:30:25" means that the auction for the lot you are interested in will finish in two days' time plus 11 hours, 30 minutes and 25 seconds; or, to put it another way, in 59 hours, 30 minutes and 25 seconds. ******** >SECTION 5 REALAUDIO RADIO, NEWS AND VIDEO You can listen to radio music and live concerts on the Internet and hear and view shows or sports and news bulletins. To do this you Will need relevant hardware and software such as that outlined below. 5.1. Basic RealPlayer 8 Hardware and Software Requirements To use RealPlayer 8 Basic and some other older media players to stream realaudio from the Internet you will need: 1. A 16-bit sound card as an integral part of your computer's motherboard or a similar or better sound card slotted into an ISA or PCI slot on the board. In the case of listening to music, you may wish to purchase a higher quality sound card, such as a modern Creative Labs Sound Blaster, e.g. Sound Blaster Live 5.1 or a Soundblaster Audigy card, or a Turtle Beach Montigo card or one of the range made by Roland. If your sound card is one of the on-the- motherboard type, i.e. an integral part of the motherboard manufacture, it is possible that it is only half duplex and not a multi-channel card and so, whilst it will work with your synthesiser and play realaudio media, it will not allow you to record and listen to sound at the same time. Some sound cards which come as part of the motherboard die and are full duplex will permit recording but may give a lower-than- expected level of performance, e.g. background noise, less than half normal recording volume level, etc. However, in the last couple of years sound cards on motherboards have improved and you can now get 5.1 surround sound from some of them, so motherboards with onboard sound cards in modern computers should not suffer as much from these inadequacies. 2. A pair of stereo speakers. These can be obtained from computer fairs for as little as œ5. However, in the case of music, it is probably worth investing in better quality and higher Wattage speakers, e.g. 500W stereo or surround sound speakers with a large separate bass speaker as well as the satellite speakers. Remember, the Wattage quoted for computer speakers and their onboard amplifiers does not compare with the Wattage rates of standard hi-fi speakers--PC speakers are far less powerful on a Watt by Watt basis. 3. A program to play Web audio over, such as Realnetworks RealPlayer, downloadable free from: www.realnetworks.com or Microsoft's Media Player, which you can obtain free from many radio station Websites. 4. A Pentium 120 Mhz-based PC or better. 5. An enhanced video card (if you can make use of the screen). 6. At least 16 Mb of memory. 7. For best video quality (if this will not adversely affect your screenreader--it should not(, set your colour palate to 16-bit high colour by pressing Windows key, S for Settings, C for Control Panel, D for Display (press ENTER) and then press CONTROL TAB until you reach "Settings". You will land on the "Colour Palate", so arrow up or down to "High Colour (16-bit)" and then TAB to OK and press ENTER. Finally, leave the Control panel by pressing ALT F4 or ALT SPACEBAR followed by C. 8. If you are using RealPlayer 8, you may also be able to benefit from some of the provisions of the RealPlayer 8 accessibility features by pressing Windows key, S for settings, R for RealPlayer (press ENTER), then TAB forward to "Settings" and press ENTER. Then check "Use Accessibility Features when Available" by pressing the SPACEBAR. Then TAB to OK and press ENTER. This "realPlayer" Control Panel option also houses several other configuration control tabs such as the "Transport", "Connections" and "Performance" property sheets, etc. 5.2. How Does Web Radio or Webcasting Work? Very basically, Web radio (also known as webcasting) works by taking the standard radio signal, converting it to digital output and then reinterpreting it as sound. You can log onto multiple radio station sites and then choose from the radio programmes which they host or go to individual radio sites. You will have to do this with your browser, e.g. Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, PWWebspeak, Webbie, etc, by pressing CONTROL O and typing one of the below music site addresses in. The home page will then open up and you can TAB or ARROW down to a likely music link and press ENTER on it. It may come up playing straightaway or you may have to start the playing by pressing CONTROL P (in RealPlayer) or ALT P and press ENTER (in Windows Media Player). 5.3. General Multiple Radio Sites to Listen To Listen to the streaming audio from some of the below radio sites: www.about.com--This site carries discussions and interviews and invites listeners worldwide to provide feedback. www.radio.sonicnet.com--Permits listeners to design their own "station" which will play only requested artists or preferred types of songs. diskjockey.com--Hosts many radio stations and lets you select stations in particular cultures or languages. http://urn.nott.ac.uk/tuner--Lets you select from a list of Uk- based radio stations. www.radio-locator.com--Is a tool for finding Web radio providers throughout the world. www.sightconnections.com/radio/radio.htm--To listen to a variety of global radio programs. www.mikesradioworld.com--Where you can select a country and then display a list of radio stations. You can also get these stations categories into genres such as pop, easy listening, classical, etc. www.tafn.org--You go to the radio link and will then find links to hundreds of UK radio stations. www.live-radio.net--For a selection of live radio programmes. www.virtualtuner.com--To hear live radio stations. 5.4. Individual and Single Topic Radio Sites to Listen To A selection of individual streaming audio radio sites covering specific tpopics is given below: www.sky.com/news/radio--Lets you stream audio and download MP3 files of the latest bulletins. www.billsparks.org--Provides a site for streaming music and other audio content. www.doowop.org--Provides streaming old-time music tracks. This webcasting site is more commonly known as Doowop Jukebox Gold. www.npr.org--Provides 24-hour news broadcasts plus archives of many shows to access. www.kbon.com--Plays such as country and cajun music. www.kcrw.org--Features live broadcasts and archives of US programmes. www.radiolovers.com--Provides streaming audio of music and US old-time shows, including comedy, drama, mystery, westerns, si- fi, music and more. You just need an MP3 player on your PC such as Windows Media Player or Winamp to hear them. www.francelink.com--Gets you European news and music from such sites as radio Sorbonne, Radio France and Europe 1. www.whrb.org--Provides music and is run by Harvard University students. www.wmbr.org--Supplies its own rock music and links to many other global radio stations. www.wwoz.org--Features Louisiana music and jazz shows. www.acbradio.org/--Contains on stream radio listening programmes and blindness-related stories and information. The UKs National Talking Express monthly magazine for visually impaired persons can also be listened to from this site. www.bbc.co.uk--Houses the BBCs site where you can view programme schedules and listen to any of the BBcs radio programmes from the last 7 days, e.g. go to www.bbc.co.uk/radio1 to hear radio 1, www.bbc.co.uk/radio 2 to listen to Radio 2, etc. You must have a version of the RealPlayer or the Real Alternative audio player on your PC to hear these streams and you can also download RealPlayer from here. 5.5. VI-Specific Multiple Radio Site to Listen To From April 2001 a new site was created called "Audio Clicks" which is designed to speak, via a screenreader, all of the important links, radio station details, country of output, etc, for hundreds of radio stations in dozens of countries around the world. When you TAB through the radio stations, you hear the name of the station, where it comes from and the station's name. This site is also enhanced for magnification software users. Radio Clicks can be found at: www.redwhiteandblue.org/news/baud/RADIOCLI.HTM (but note the case of the above URL) 5.6. Example of Streaming and Listening to Realaudio using the Windows Media Player For example, to play music offered by the Harvard University radio site of www.whrb.org you would: 1. Run Internet Explorer, then press CONTROL O and type in the above URL: www.whrb.org and press ENTER. 2. The home page will load in, so TAB to a music link which interests you, e.g. the WHRB Regular link, and press ENTER. 3. The Windows Media Player will open up (as this site is set up to play music via this realaudio player). 4. You may receive a security warning dialogue asking you if you want to install and run Windows Media Player and trust Microsoft content. If you are happy with this, press ENTER on the "Yes" button after TABBING to it. 5. The Media Player will then be ready to play your above WHRB Regular music and you should press ALT P (for play) and ENTER on the "Play" option. 6. You should now hear whatever music is currently being played on this online radio station. 7. To examine the other menu options in Windows Media Player 6 (or whichever version you are using), press your ALT key and right ARROW through the menu titles and then ARROW down these to look at the available features. Note: If you hear nothing because your software screenreader is interfering with the flow of music, you may have to unload your screenreader, although this is not likely to happen with up-to- date computers and sound cards. When you are on the music link to press ENTER on, unload the screenreader as normal, e.g. with INSERT F4 and ENTER with JAWS; with CONTROL \, then ALT F4 and ENTER with Window-Eyes; or with CONTROL SPACEBAR, THEN ALT SPACEBAr and press ENTER on "Quit" or "Close" with HAL; and then press ENTER to hear the music or show. This may be necessary if you do not have a multi-channel sound card in your PC. 5.7. Example of Listening to RealAudio Using Winamp To be able to do this with Winamp you must, of course, have downloaded a copy of the Winamp player to your computer and installed it first. You can get a copy of Winamp from: www.whitestick.co.uk or www.winampheaven.com If you want to go directly to and hear a continuous streaming audio radio station on the Internet using Winamp: 1. Launch Winamp. 2. Press CONTROL L and type in the editfield the radio station's location address, e.g.: http://166.90.143.149:10998 and press ENTER. 3. You should hear the Radio Caroline radio station from this location, after a short delay whilst the audio fills Winamp's buffer. However, this station only plays at certain times of day or night, so you may hear nothing when you try it. Nonetheless, this is how you would play streaming audio with Winamp in this direct way. Note: Winamp and the whole theme of audio playing copying and editing is covered in more depth and breadth in both of my two tutorials entitled "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing from the Keyboard". To find out more and view the TOCs for these specialised sound-related tutorials, have a look on my Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard 5.8. Installing and Using RealPlayer 8 Basic I originally provided a description of how to go onto the RealPlayer Website to download RealPlayer in this section but, since RealPlayer 8 is not now available on this site, this is no longer appropriate. If you do not already have a copy of RealPlayer 8 basic and cannot find anywhere to download it from or someone who can supply you with an old copy, you will need to obtain the most up-to-date version, which is currently RealPlayer 10, and skip to the section below which deals with this. I was originally considering removing this older sub-section altogether but decided to leave it here because I know that some visually impaired people still use this version because they prefer it to later versions and think it more screenreader-friendly. When installing the RealPlayer 8 Basic program, you have to complete the registration form, indicate the speed of your modem, etc, and then accept all of the "Next" buttons to the "Finish button". The program should automatically start with music and a few welcome sentences and offer to take you online to send the registration form and start your first media session. Note: The RealPlayer 8 program runs for 120 days, after which you are permitted to uninstall it and reinstall it for another 120 days' use. 5.8.1. Pen-Picture of the RealPlayer Basic Screen The likely layout of the RealPlayer 8 screen as its default is as follows. At the top of the screen is the standard Title Bar with the word "realPlayer" displayed as the running program. Just under this is the Menu Bar, with File, Edit, etc and below this there is a Toolbar of options to click on. Below this appears the "Location Bar", which shows the address of the file you are currently playing. Below this is the rest of the screen with, on the left, the "Content Panel", which displays advertisement-type details, such as Take 5, Bloomburg, ZD TV, etc. to the right is the majority of the main display panel where any script or video clips, etc, would be displayed when you are running realPlayer. Then, at the very bottom of the screen, comes the "Status Bar" showing the state of progress of clip downloads, etc. However, you may wish to reduce the number of panels displayed so that the screen is less cluttered and so that your screenreader does not continually chatter the contents of the "Contents Panel". You can do this by pressing ALT V (for View) and ARROWING down and unchecking the "Location Bar" and "Content Panel" by pressing ENTER on them. You will probably want to keep the "Status Bar" checked on and, in order to give you access to Realplayer's search facilities, you may wish to check on the "RealPlayer Media Bar". This Media Bar will pop up just above the Status Bar. Alternatively, if you press CONTROL M, you will get a compact view of the above screen with most of the bars turned off and with a reduced Toolbar and Status Line. This view is similar to the display of a CD player and suitable for audio playback. Pressing CONTROL N will return you to the normal screen view. If you want to know the title, author and copyright for the current playing clip (block of sound or video data) or portion of a multiclip, you should enable the "Clip Info Bar" by pressing ALT V and then I. Note: The RealPlayer 10 Basic screen and View Menu options are different from those in RealPlayer 8. 5.8.2. Using RealPlayer 8 Basic Start RealPlayer by pressing ENTER on its shortcut on the Desktop. It will come up with a short burst of introductory music and your screenreader may get into a loop and continuously speak what is called the "Content Panel". To stop this, press ALT V to get into the View Menu and ARROW down to "Content Panel" and uncheck this by pressing ENTER. There are many more of these panels or bars in the View Menu and you may wish to uncheck some or most of these in order to obtain a less cluttered screen. However, it is recommended that you leave the "Status Bar" and "Realcom Media Bar" checked on. The former keeps you up to date on the state of clip downloads, the stream bandwidth, etc, and the latter makes four useful buttons available to you. RealPlayer plays media in "clips", which are blocks of video or audio data. These may be snippets of news, whole lectures or a block of several music tracks. The latter are called multiclips. 5.8.3. Loading a Clip for Playing in RealPlayer You can load and play a media clip in several ways: 1. Provided that RealPlayer has been made your default media player, press ENTER on a media link on an Internet page and RealPlayer will launch automatically and play it. 2. Drag a media file or link to the RealPlayer or RealPlayer icon on the Desktop, when RealPlayer will play the clip. 3. Select a favourite from the RealPlayer Favourites Menu, when the media will automatically be accessed without opening a browser, even if the media is on the Web. 4. By pressing CONTROL L and then entering a location on the Web (Internet address path to a video or audio media file) which begins with "rtsp://" or "pnm://" or "http://" in the dialogue box that appears. For example: Type: http://www.acb.org/acblive/mainstream.pls or www.abcradio.org/mainstream.ram and press ENTER. Note 1: You can only play a media clip in this way if you have the full path to the file. You cannot simply type in the site's home page and go on from there, so you could not type in any of the URLs mentioned under the above "Individual and Single Topic Radio Sites" heading. Note 2: The above-mentioned CONTROL L shortcut does not work in RealPlayer 10. 5. By pressing CONTROL O and choosing a local (on your hard disk or on a CD) media file. For instance, press CONTROL O, and type in the editfield the full path to the media file, e.g.: C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer\firstrun.rm (with RealPlayer 8) or C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer\Firstrun\firstrun.smil (with RealPlayer 10) and Press ENTER. Or you can browse to it by TABBING to the "Look In" button where "RealPlayer" should be highlighted (or you can ARROW to it), then TAB again once to a list of audio and video files which you can play by pressing ENTER on one of them, e.g. press ENTER when you get to "firstrun.rm, and the RealPlayer introduction file will play or ARROW to "videotest.rm" and press ENTER to see this video test file run. 6. By pressing ALT f and ARROWING down to a recently opened clip at the bottom of the File Menu to replay one of these. By default, the last eight clips you played are stored here. The Channels Menu (ALT C) holds quick links to services, such as news, sports, etc. It updates headlines from the services it is associated with on a regular basis when connected to the Internet. Note: If you wish to listen to audio from the UK BBC Website, you will need to have RealPlayer installed on your PC to hear it, as most other players will not work on this site. However, since the beginning of 2005, the BBC has also been providing its own audio player and so you can now use this accessible BBC player or RealPlayer (see "Shortcuts for use with the BBCs own Accessible Streaming Audio Player" below for more about this). Since early in 2005 Manchester University has also been supplying several free blind-friendly accessible players for listening to current and past BBC programmes and for accessing online news bulletins (see "Accessible BBC Current and Past Programs Listening Software" later in this section. As another alternative, there is also a free media player available for download which can play the same media formats as RealPlayer called Real Alternative from: www.whitestick.co.uk/download.html 5.8.4. Searching for Things to Listen to or Watch You can find media to watch or listen to by navigating to the "Realcom Media search Bar" buttons (just above the Status Bar) with your mouse cursor and pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on either: 1. Radio Tuner--To find radio stations. This "Radio" option is in the View menu in RealPlayer 10. 2. TV Guide--To open Real.com Guide which is a Realnetworks site which searches the Internet for interesting content and pulls it all to one place for you to find. This is activated with CONTROL SHIFT W in RealPlayer 10. 3. Search--This is the same as a typical search engine on the Net but it only finds links which include streaming media. What happens is that Realcom opens www.real.com in your browser which allows you to choose search and find content by pressing ENTER on links or typing in words or phrases to do with the subject you are interested in. In RealPlayer 10 this "Search" feature is in the View menu and on the Toolbar and its shortcut is CONTROL SHIFT S. 4. Message Service--This keeps you up to date by automatically updating channels and channel headlines, so that the best Web content is always available to you. Note 1: Some Web media sites house their own realaudio player links and will play video and audio directly from those links if you press ENTER on them without you having to start your own realaudio program first. Note 2: To get to some of these features with RealPlayer 10 you will have to go to the Toolbar buttons just under the Main menu and use your screenreader's left click simulation button in mouse mode on any of them, such as the "Real Guide", to access these services. You can also use shortcuts to them, e.g. CONTROL shift S and CONTROL SHIFT W for search and Real Guide respectively. 5.8.5. The Play List The Playlist is where you can, in some circumstances, select which clip or track to play when several are available in a media file. You open Winamp's Play list with ALT V (for View) and then Y (for Playlist). While a multiclip is playing the play list will display the currently playing track of the multiclip. This is not available with single clips. To see the rest of the play list or table of contents, e.g. album, track titles, etc, press ENTER on it to view a dropdown menu and select a different heading to cause the player to jump to that position within the multiclip. 5.8.6. The RealPlayer Basic Favourites Folder This Favourites menu option lets you return to your favourite media and programmes quickly. You can add a favourite by pressing ALT A and pressing ENTER or by pressing CONTROL A while playing a clip. When you next want to go to this same entertainment source, you just go into the Favourites menu, (with ALT A) ARROW down the options to where its name is and press ENTER. If you want to go to some sites with interesting realaudio on them already set up for you in RealPlayer, press ALT A (for Favourites) and ARROW down to "Websites" and press ENTER. A list of such sites will appear for you to press ENTER on any one to be taken to that site, e.g. Musicnet, Live Concerts.com, etc. Please note that all of the sub-menus in the Favourites menu, such as within "Web Pages", "Radio", etc, will be empty in RealPlayer 10 until you have been online and searched for and downloaded some media content. 5.8.7. Using the RealPlayer Help System Some versions of RealPlayer 8 Basic do not come automatically with an online help file as part of the downloaded program but others do. If you have the help file, after launching the program, you just press F1 or ALT H and then Enter to open it. If you have a version of RealPlayer 8 with no online help file, after downloading the help file from the Realnetworks.com site (see the "Note" below the list of shortcut keystrokes, you can successfully use the standard Windows-type help file with your screenreader but you will need to maximise the help window (with ALT SPACEBAR and then press X) so that the information lines are not truncated. Note that the help file is the whole RealPlayer Plus help document, so some of the features mentioned in it will not work in the free basic version, e.g. you cannot stop a clip partway through and mark it to recommence later, you cannot make your own recordings, you do not have the use of "Perfect Play", etc. To use the RealPlayer help system: Press F1 (or ALT H and ENTER) to load the RealPlayer help menu bar just below the normal Windows menu bar and to hear the initial help introduction. Use PAGE DOWN to hear the next page of information. There will usually be a number of links at the end of the help text which are related to the topic which you can TAB through and press ENTER on to obtain more details. After perusing the initial help pages, you can only get back to the help contents sheet to obtain more detailed headings and sub-headings by going to the "Contents" button at the top of the window with your mouse cursor (the JAWS cursor, HAL navigation/virtual cursor mode, Window-Eyes mouse keys, etc) and by pressing the left mouse click key on it. You can then ARROW down the help file main headings and open them with ENTER as you go along. When you have read the whole of a particular topic, go back to the "Content" button and left click on it again to return to the contents list. By pressing ALT H (for Help) and ARROWING down, there are also FAQ (frequently asked questions) files which you can be taken to on the Real.com or realnetworks.com site in the Help Menu under "Common Questions" and a whole "Knowledge Base" from which to get answers to technical questions.The "Check for Update" option will enable you to download the latest versions of any of the realnetworks software you already have. If you are using JFW 3.5 or higher, you can obtain more RealPlayer help and information by activating JAWS application help by pressing INSERT F1 twice whilst RealPlayer is open. However, be aware that, whilst most of this is still applicable to RealPlayer 8 Basic, the version of RealPlayer they are referring to may be the older RealPlayer G2. 5.8.8. RealPlayer 8 Shortcut Keystrokes RealPlayer Basic has a standard Windows-type Menu Bar which you can view by pressing the ALT key and ARROWING left and right. Most of the more important functions, however, can be achieved by use of shortcut keystrokes, and these are outlined below: Press F1: To load the help contents sheet (but see below if no Contents are currently available). Press F5: To refresh the HTML. Press ALT F4: to exit the RealPlayer. Press CONTROL P: To start and pause play. Press CONTROL S: To stop play and take it back to the start. Press CONTROL left ARROW: To rewind play. Press CONTROL SHIFT left ARROW: To super rewind play. Press CONTROL right ARROW: To fast forward play. Press CONTROL SHIFT right ARROW: To super fast forward play. Press CONTROL up ARROW: to increase the volume. Press CONTROL down ARROW: To reduce the volume. Press PAGE UP: To go back to the previous clip in a multiclip file or the next location when scanning. Press PAGE DOWN: To go to the next clip. Press CONTROL H: To initiate a search. Press CONTROL L: To open location and let you play real media files on the Net without using your Web browser. You then enter the URL of any streaming content, such as a .rm, .ra or .ram file. Press CONTROL O: To open a local file on your hard disk and play it, after selecting a media file, such as a .ra, .rm or .ram file. Press CONTROL N: To obtain normal view displaying all RealPlayer buttons and controls. Press CONTROL M: To switch to compact view, where only the image area is displayed, together with a subset of the buttons and a reduced Status Bar and menu selection. Note: When you press F1 (or ALT H and press ENTER) to obtain the help file, with some RealPlayer versions, it may not be available unless you go onto the Real.com Website and download it by following the instructions which come up when you press F1. At the same time you can download other free software such as RealJukebox and Netzip. To obtain just the help file, put focus on it by ARROWING down the files list, press the SPACEBAR to check it and then go into your navigation or mouse mode to find the "Get it Now" button (it is in a right-hand column) and double click your left mouse simulation button. Simply TABBING to the "Get it Now" button in your screenreader's normal mode is not likely to achieve the desired result. The file will only take about two minutes to download. 5.9. RealPlayer 10 Basic If you wish to use the added features of RealPlayer 10, you can download it from: www.acbradio.com 1. Just TAB to the "Download" link an press ENTER. 2. Then TAB again to the "RealPlayer 10" link and press ENTER. 3. You will get the usual save to disk and filename dialogue box and should press ENTER on the "Save" button. 4. The approximately 10 Mb file will be called something like "realplayer10-5gold.exe", depending on the version available when you do this download. It was Version 10.5 when I did this. It took about 50 minutes to download with a 56K modem. 5.9.1. Basic RealPlayer 10 Hardware and software Requirements To use RealPlayer 10 you will need a minimum of: 1. A 16-bit sound card as an integral part of your computer's motherboard or a similar or better sound card slotted into an ISA or PCI slot on the board. In the case of listening to music, you may wish to purchase a higher quality sound card, such as a modern Creative Labs Sound Blaster, e.g. Sound Blaster Live 5.1 or a Soundblaster Audigy card, or a Turtle Beach Montigo card or one of the range made by Roland. If your sound card is one of the on-the- motherboard type, i.e. an integral part of the motherboard manufacture, it is possible that it is only half duplex and not a multi-channel card and so, whilst it will work with your synthesiser and play realaudio media, it will not allow you to record and listen to sound at the same time. Some sound cards which come as part of the motherboard die and are full duplex will permit recording but may give a lower-than- expected level of performance, e.g. background noise, less than half normal recording volume level, etc. However, modern motherboards come with better onboard sound cards and sometimes have 5.1 surround sound as well. 2. A pair of stereo speakers. These can be obtained from computer fairs for as little as œ5. However, it is probably, in the case of music, worth investing in better quality and higher Wattage speakers, e.g. 500W stereo or surround sound speakers with a large separate bass speaker as well as the satellite speakers. Remember, the Wattage quoted for computer speakers and their onboard amplifiers does not compare with the Wattage rates of standard hi-fi speakers--PC speakers are far less powerful on a Watt by Watt basis. 3. A Pentium 350 Mhz-based PC or better. 4. An enhanced video card (if you can make use of the screen). 5. At least 64 Mb of memory but 128 Mb for Windows XP. 6. For best video quality (if this will not adversely affect your screenreader--it should not(, set your colour palate to 16-bit high colour by pressing Windows key, S for Settings, C for Control Panel, D for Display (press ENTER) and then press CONTROL TAB until you reach "Settings". You will land on the "Colour Palate", so arrow up or down to "High Colour (16-bit)" and then TAB to OK and press ENTER. Finally, leave the Control panel by pressing ALT F4 or ALT SPACEBAR followed by C. Note that RealPlayer 10 offers you the option to do this without you having to go through the above when it installs. 7. You may also be able to benefit from some of the provisions of the RealPlayer 8 accessibility features by pressing Windows key, S for settings, R for RealPlayer (press ENTER), then TAB forward to "Settings" and press ENTER. Then check "Use Accessibility Features when Available" by pressing the SPACEBAR. Then TAB to OK and press ENTER. This "realPlayer" Control Panel option also houses several other configuration control tabs such as the "Transport", "Connections" and "Performance" property sheets, etc. For more information about these requirements and details about known issues with the use of RealPlayer 10 and other hardware and software, see the RealPlayer 10 Read.me file found at: C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer\Readme.html 5.9.2. Downloading and Installing RealPlayer 10 Having downloaded RealPlayer 10 as outlined in the last sub- section from: www.acbradio.com you should press ENTER on the downloaded .exe file, which will be about 10 Mb in size. Then: 1. After a minute or two wait, you TAB to the "accept" button and press ENTER to accept the licence agreement. 2. The Internet connection page now comes up and you should select the speed/type of your modem for use whilst streaming audio from the Net, e.g. Tab to "I do not have an Internet connection", then TAB once more and then ARROW down to such as "56.6 Kbps", etc, or the appropriate broadband modem and connection speed if you are on broadband. Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 3. Next comes the set-up options page where you are told that RealPlayer will be installed at: C:\Program Files\Real\RealPlayer\RealPlayer and you will automatically be provided with a Desktop shortcut to run RealPlayer from. So again TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. After RealPlayer installs, you will be presented with the media types page to select or deselect the media types you want RealPlayer to be the default (regular) player for playing those types of files on the Web and on your PC instead of any other player on your system when you select them for playing. You can TAB through these to observe them and uncheck any which are already checked by pressing SPACEBAR on them or check any others which are not already checked. For instance, the media types already checked on are for playing MP3, Cds, DVDs and WAV. 5. Lastly, TAB to "Finish" and press ENTER. 6. If your video display settings are not optimal for RealPlayer 10, this version of RealPlayer will offer to open the display option in the Control Panel for you to make any necessary changes when you press ENTER on the "Open Display Panel" button. You can then select Realplayer's recommendations of 16 bit high colour and 800 by 600 resolution. This should not affect your screenreader's ability to work properly but if you do experience any adverse effects, change things back again in the Display settings of the Control Panel and RealPlayer should still work OK but any video clips may be substandard. 5.9.3. Tips on the Use of RealPlayer 10 on the Net The below basic guidelines and comments should help you to get a start with RealPlayer 10 basic on the Net and for use with hard disk based audio files. 5.9.3.1. How to Listen to Audio Streaming from the Net You only have to go to any Web page with your Internet browser which has audio links on it to listen to that audio. In the main, when pressing ENTER on an audio link on a Web page to hear streaming audio, you will simply hear the music or spoken show as soon as it has time to fill the RealPlayer buffer on your computer and then be sent to your speakers. The quality may not be very special, as you only get RealPlayer's best quality sound if you purchase their professional version of RealPlayer known as RealPlayer Plus with their premium features. If you only have a 56K modem, you may also experience intermittent cutting off of audio before it then resumes where it left off. This cutting off should not occur if you have a broadband Internet connection. Many of the instructions given for using RealPlayer 8 above in sub-sections 5.8.2. to 5.8.6. will also give you an idea of how to use some of the features of RealPlayer 10 but, as this is not a tutorial specialising in the in-depth use of audio software, many of RealPlayer's more exotic features are not covered here, e.g. RealPlayer 10 can now burn CDs for you (but not DVDs) and it can go online and download CD album and tracks information from the online free cd database. You should also note that most of the realPlayer 8 shortcut keystrokes have changed in Version 10, so you will have to re-learn these if you have been a user of earlier RealPlayer software. I have listed these new shortcuts in the below sub-section entitled "Real Player 10 Shortcut Keystrokes" for your convenience. 5.9.3.2. Essential Shortcut Keystrokes when Playing Streaming Audio and Audio from your Hard disk Playing streaming audio from the Internet is akin to playing audio live, therefore not all RealPlayer's commands/shortcut keystrokes will work in this environment. Whilst listening to streaming audio from a Website, pressing CONTROL P will pause the playing of audio, Pressing CONTROL P again will restart its playing and pressing CONTROL S will stop the playing of the file. If you wish to play a local file from your hard disk, then the full range of RealPlayer's shortcut key commands becomes available. In this case, what you could do is open the audio file for playing by pressing CONTROL O and then type into the editfield which opens up such as: c:\programfiles\real\realplayer\firstrun\firstrun.smil (this file really exists in RealPlayer 10 and so should play) or c:\my music\strawberry fields.mp3 (this is a fictitious example only) or TAB to the "Browse" button and press ENTER and then navigate in the usual Windows way to the audio file you wish to play and press ENTER on it. When the file starts playing, just like playing a track from a cassette or mini-CD, you can then not only use such as CONTROL P to pause and unpause its playing and CONTROL S to stop it but you can also: hold down the CONTROL key and the left BRACKET key (next to the P key) together to cause the file to rewind hold down the CONTROL key and the right BRACKET to cause the file to forward wind hold down the ALT key and the left BRACKET key to fast rewind at 10 times normal speed hold down the ALT key and the right BRACKET key to fast forward wind at 10 times normal speed hold down the CONTROL key and repeatedly press the up ARROW key to incrementally increase the volume of the playing of the file if it is not already on full volume hold down the CONTROL key and repeatedly press the down ARROW key to incrementally decrease the volume of the file The above is how you would play and deal with audio links you come across on a Website or on your hard disk. You can, of course, use the RealPlayer Real Guide, Radio sub-menu of the View menu, etc, to go to numerous audio media sites and select shows or specific music programs to stream and listen to from there. 5.9.3.3. Making Tonal Changes in the RealPlayer Equaliser By default, the RealPlayer equaliser is set to zero for bass, mid and treble. If you would like to change the tonal quality of a playing audio file, you can do this in the RealPlayer Equaliser by pressing ALT T (for Tools) and then ARROWING to and pressing ENTER on "Equalizer". Now TAB once to "Bass" and ARROW up to increase the bass, e.g. five times to increase the bass to 50 per cent of full bass ability, or ARROW down to decrease this. TAB to "Mid" and then to "Treble" and do the same again to suit your listening ear and then press ESCAPE to leave this dialogue box. 5.9.3.4. Observing the Playing Quality of your Audio Files and Where You are in them At the top of the RealPlayer screen just to the right of the RealPlayer Title Bar and playing filename, you will observe a figure with a Kbps attached to it, e.g. typically 10 Kbps (kilabits per second) when nothing is playing and 30 Kbps when you are listening to streaming audio from the Net. This indicates the level of RealPlayer's full quality of playback which is currently being used. As already stated, when streaming files from the Internet, this is typically 30 Kbps and also 30 Kbps when playing a file from your hard disk. You will only achieve a better percentage of quality playback approaching 100 per cent of the program's top quality (100 Kbps) if you are using the purchased premium version of RealPlayer Plus. The figures to the right of this Kbps figure are to let you know at what point you are in a playing audio or video file and what the total length of a file is, e.g. with the first lot of figures, 0:00 means that you are at the beginning of the file, 0:05 means you are five seconds into the file, 1:20 means that you are one minute and 20 seconds into the file; and, with the second lot of figures, 4:16 means that the whole file is four minutes and 16 seconds long. Note 1: If you wish to use RealPlayer to record an audio stream from the Internet to your hard disk so that you can play it again at a later date, you can only get access to RealPlayer's recording abilities by purchasing RealPlayer Plus. Note 2: If you experience long waits before streaming audio media is heard from a Website, you may improve things if you check on the "Instantly Play Web Page Media Links Instead of Downloading Them" option in Tools, Preferences, Playback Settings. Note 3: It will become apparent to you fairly quickly, by the number of times RealPlayer 10 Basic tries to take you onto the Internet, that it is truly designed for dealing with Internet media content rather than other forms of media manipulation. If you pay for RealPlayer 10 Plus, however, you will then get access to many more features both for online use and on-your-hard-disk use, e.g. use of cross-fading, use of mic and line-in recording to disk, the full 100 per cent sound quality, and so forth. 5.9.4. Using the RealPlayer 10 Help System You can access RealPlayer 10 help by pressing F1 or ALT H and then ENTER on "Help Contents". You then get the standard type of Windows help structure where you can ARROW down subject headings and right ARROW to open up subject books to reveal their sub- headings and/or their individual topics. Pressing ENTER on any topic will open up the help text for you to ARROW down and listen to it but you will have to press F6 to move to the text window first. Pressing F6 again takes you back to the headings and topics list. This help is HTML-based and so works via hyperlinks on each page and obeys general Internet Explorer keystrokes, e.g press ALT left ARROW to return to the last page you were on, ALT right ARROW to move right through already visited pages, etc. Some of these help subjects and topics will already be online on your hard disk for you to view but others will not and will only become available to you if you then download them from the Internet. For example, the "Keyboard Shortcuts" file is not available without downloading it. After using help, you can close it by pressing ALT F4. There is a "Download Help Now" button to use to download the full help document which you can ARROW down to when you first open RealPlayer help with ALT H and ENTER on "Help Contents", followed by pressing the F6 key. Additionally, on this first page you come into in Help, you can also ARROW down to two links labelled "Download Screenreader Accessible Help Now" and "Install Screenreader Accessible Help" to enable you to download and install screenreader accessible help files. You should press ENTER on these and let it take you on line again to automatically download and install these help files, which will only take a couple of minutes. To get back to the usual Help Contents list of headings and topics press F6 again. 5.9.5. Real Player 10 Shortcut Keystrokes If you have downloaded the later version 10 of the RealPlayer program, you will immediately discover that most of the old RealPlayer 8 shortcuts do not work. A few only still work as before, e.g. F1 for help, CONTROL P for pausing play and restarting it, etc. The new shortcuts for RealPlayer 10 are: Player Controls Press CONTROL [ (left bracket): To fast rewind the playing audio. Press CONTROL ] (right bracket): To forward wind. Press ALT [ (left bracket): To rewind at 10 times standard rewind speed. Press ALT ] (right bracket): To fast forward at 10 times standard speed. Press CONTROL P: To play and/or pause playback. Press CONTROL R: To play the previous clip. Press CONTROL T: To play the next clip. Press CONTROL S: To stop the playing. Press control up ARROW : To turn the volume up. Press CONTROL down ARROW: To turn the volume down. Press F11: To mute the playing. View Controls Press F7: To go into normal mode. Press F8: To go into Toolbar mode. Press F9: To go into theatre mode. Press CONTROL 1: To place the screen display into normal size. Press CONTROL 2: TO make the screen double size. Press CONTROL 3: To go into full screen theatre mode. Press CONTROL SHIFT up ARROW: To resize upwards. Press CONTROL SHIFT down ARROW: To resize down. Media Browser/Task Bar Press CONTROL B: To open or hide the browser. Press CONTROL SHIFT D: To open the burn/transfer page. Press CONTROL SHIFT B : To attach or detach the browser. Press CONTROL SHIFT S: To go to the search page. Press CONTROL SHIFT W: to go to the realguide page. Press CONTROL F: To use find on a Web page. Press CONTROL SHIFT L: To go to the My Library page. Press CONTROL SHIFT N: To toddle now playing on and off. Press CONTROL SHIFT C: to go to the cd/dvd page. Press CONTROL O: To open the open dialogue. Press F12: To go to the next page. Press SHIFT F12: To go to the previous page. Miscellaneous Press CONTROL G: To add the current Web page to your favourites list. Press CONTROL I: To view clip information. Press CONTROL H: To edit clip information. Press CONTROL SHIFT M: To open the message centre. Press ALT M: To open the toolbar menu. Press F1: To open help contents. Press ALT F4: To close a window or the program. Media Browser Pages Press F5: To refresh a page. Press CONTROL F: To find something on a page. Press CONTROL N: To open a new browser window. Press BACKSPACE: To move back a level. Press SHIFT BACKSPACE: To move forward a level. Press F2: To rename whatever you are on in My Library. Press CONTROL W: To open up a new playlist. Press CONTROL L: To add clips in the Playlist. Press CONTROL J: To eject a CD. As usual, shortcuts such as CONTROL A, CONTROL C, etc, work as normal for selecting, copying, pasting, etc. Note: Some of the above shortcuts may clash with your screenreader's own special hot keys, so if this happens use your screenreader's bypass or allow next key through hot key first, e.g. INSERT 3 with JAWS, INSERT B with Window-Eyes and CONTROL Numpad 7 with HAL. 5.10. How to Create Your Own Radio Station There are now several ways you can create your own radio station for Webcasting purposes, so that you can host your own radio station. 5.10.1. On Live 365 You can do this for a monthly charge (it used to be free) by signing up at: www.live365.com When you will be allocated a free Web radio station with 365 Mb of media storage space at your disposal. You can use this to host music, chat shows, comedy programmes, etc. You would upload your programme material in MP3 format, select the order you want clips to play in and the site will run these in a loop continuously until you change the material by uploading another programme. In March 2003, Live 365 introduced an online music library, which is a secure online record pool for recording labels and artists to make their music available to the Live 365 community. So, if you are a musician, you can upload your own created music to the library and listen to music from other contributors.Its at: www.live365.com/musiclibrary You would record, mix and edit your audio material with a sound recording and editing program like Cakewalk, Cool Edit, Sound Forge or GoldWave and then convert your sound files to MP3 format. Then you upload these MP3 files to the Live365 server. You can purchase and download the GoldWave audio editor from: www.goldWave.com Or just download the demo first and test it to see if it suits your purposes and purchase it later. After putting your radio show together or creating your own music tracks, you would upload these sound files using an FTP (file transfer protocol) client, such as FTP Explorer, which is similar to an HTTP Web browser but with file uploading abilities. You can download a free copy of FTP Explorer from: www.ftpx.com 5.10.2. On Yahoo Launchcast In a similar vein to Live 365, Yahoo offers the Launchcast service for you to host your own radio programmes from. It is a browser-driven radio station at: htpp://launch.yahoo.com/launchcast 5.11. Promote Your Own Station on the Streammadness Mailing List The "Streammadness" mailing list permits you to promote your own show or radio station. Anyone interested in listening to such streaming audio can also join the list to learn about up and coming broadcasts from stations around the world. To Join this e-mail list send a blank message to: streammadness-subscribe@yahoogroups.com 5.12. Sharing Streaming Audio Content Over the Net by Peercasting Whereas webcasting is concerned with creating your own music or other audio content station and uploading these to a server for listeners to stream and here the content from, "peercasting" is where you use file sharing technology to share audio directly between peercast participants' computers, i.e. you can stream and listen to audio from John Smith's PC and he could do likewise from yours if you are both signed up to the peercasting system. Note, however, that this service will only work in a tolerable fashion if you have a broadband connection to the Internet. You can join up with such a peercasting provider at: www.peercast.org 5.13. Recording/Ripping Streaming radio Audio to Disk If, whilst listening to a radio station streaming from the Internet, you would also like to rip (record) it to your hard disk, you can obtain a number of software packages which can do this. For example, you can download a program called Station Ripper from: http://ratajik.com/stationripper You can also record straight to hard disk from a streaming audio source with such programs as Total Recorder, Recall Pro and GoldWave 5. A demo of the GoldWave sound editor can be downloaded from: www.goldwave.com 5.14. Shortcuts for use with the BBCs own Accessible Streaming Audio Player Since early 2005 the BBC has been providing a set of players for streaming audio content from certain types of programmes including: News Player Weather Player Sport Player Radio Player You can download this special RealPlayer streaming audio player as directed in note 2 below. When on the BBCs site and listening to this streaming audio you can use a set of the BBCs own accessible hot keys to control how the audio you hear behaves. These are: Press ALT 0: To bring up the access keys guide. Press ALT 1: To go to the home page. Press ALT 2: To get to audio controls and information. Press ALT 3: To jump to a list of shows, when IE users should also then press ENTER. Press ALT 4: To start and stop audio from playing. Press ALT 5: To rewind by 15 minutes for speech programs only. Press ALT 6: To rewind by one minute for speech programs only. Press ALT 7: To move forward by one minute for speech programs only. Press ALT 8: To move forward 5 minutes for music programs only. Press ALT 9: To move forward by 15 minutes for both speech and music programs. Press ALT Q: To increase the volume by 20 per cent. Press ALT W: To decrease the volume by 20 per cent. Note 1: If any of the above BBC player shortcut keys should happen to clash with your own screenreader's hot keys, use your screenreader's bypass hot key so that the above BBC keystroke will then be allowed through to work, e.g. INSERT 3 with JAWS, INSERT B with Window-Eyes and CONTROL Numpad 7 with HAL. Note 2: You can download and install the BBC RealPlayer streaming audio program from: www.bbc.co.uk/radio/audiohelp_install.shtml and follow the download and installation links supplied here. Now, wehn you next activate a link to a BBC Internet radio program or show, it should automatically play for you. Alternatively, for as long as it lasts (and if you can type the following string without hitting a wrong key!), you may be able to directly download the BBC RealPlayer streaming player from: www.real.com/r/rdx.fail-click.r/software- dl.real.com/215423af4c5657038506/windows/oem/bbc02d/rp10-bbc-en- setup.exe Note 3: If the BBC radio player does not suit you, or will not work correctly for you (which many people have experienced), you can still, as was always the case, use RealPlayer or Real Alternative to stream audio with from the BBC site. Note 4: Another way of listening to the BBC is via the below Audio Network, where you can switch between playing stations with only one keystroke: www.yrguk.com/radio/bbc.htm You can also listen to BBC audio from: www.tafn.org.uk 5.15. Accessible BBC Current and Past Programs Listening Software Since early in 2005 Manchester University has been writing and freely supplying several blind-friendly programs to make finding and listening to the BBC's online programmes quick and easy. They are, in effect, easy to use front-end interfaces to the main BBC Website, which itself is very large and may be difficult or time- consuming to use from a screenreader perspective. The main two of these are: Accessible Radio Accessible Listen Again Their is also a program called "Accessible RSS" for viewing news pages online. These three accessible software packages for listening to BBC programmes or viewing news headers can be downloaded from: www.webbie.org.uk/downloads.htm The links you are looking for to download each separate program from are near the bottom of the home page and, after downloading the .exe files, just press ENTER on them to start the installation and follow the straightforward installation instructions. The software installs itself at and can be run from: Start Menu\Program Files\Webbie You do not need to have either Internet Explorer or RealPlayer running to use these programs. For example, to use the Accessible Radio software, having downloaded and installed it as directed above, you would: 1. Go online onto the Internet. 2. Press WINDOWS key, then P (for Programs), W several times until you get to "Webbie" and then press ENTER. 3. ARROW down to "Accessible Radio" and press ENTER. 4. You will come into a list of national and local BBC radio program titles to ARROW down. Leave focus on any of these, e.g. "Radio 2", and TAB once to "Listen" and press ENTER. You will hear this BBC radio program start to play for you after a short pause. 5. At any time you can TAB through other buttons in this interface, e.g. TAB to "Stop" and press ENTER to stop the playing of the program you are listening to. 6. If you want to listen to a different program, just stop your current program from running and then ARROW to another program in the above programs list and start that playing as before. Listening to Past BBC Programmes If you wish to listen to recently broadcast programs which you have missed hearing earlier (usually limited to the last seven days), you can do this in the same way as you used the Accessible Radio software but this time using the Accessible Listen again software. You launch it as in steps 1 to 3 above but this time, in the list of available radio programmes mentioned in step 4 above, you ARROW down a list of past programs to listen to. Currently only Radio 4 programs are available in this list and not all Radio 4 programs at that but, perhaps, this list will grow as this program matures and newer versions are released. Viewing RSS News Headlines If you would like to view headlines and, if you wish, be taken to Web pages with more information on them in respect of those news headlines, you can use the Accessible RSS reader, again found in the above list of accessible readers. ARROWING to and pressing ENTER on any headline in the list of headlines will take you to Web pages with more details elsewhere on the Net. You can elect to get your headlines from such as the BBC headlines feed source or you can choose several other news headline source providers for this purpose. ******** >SECTION 6 DOWNLOAD MANAGERS, ADVERTISEMENT BANNER REMOVERS, COOKIE CRUNCHERS AND SPYWARE REMOVERS A download manager is a piece of software which may perform a variety of functions for you but is mainly intended to speed up your software downloads and, wherever possible, pick a download up and continue from that point for you if you get cut off part-way through a download. Both can save you much download time and thus expense, particularly if you have an unreliable pay-as-you-go connection to your ISP and you do not have a broadband Internet connection. On the other hand, cookie removers and advertisement removers (also known as spyware removers) are software which root out unwanted tracker cooky files (but not those you have accepted and therefore want to keep) and removes them and may also be able to find and remove unwanted advertising banners which some sites and software plant on your computer. Some of these tracker cookies and other spyware files have the purpose of relaying information back to a Website about your Internet surfing patterns so that they can record this and use it themselves or sell it to advertising and marketing companies for their ad campaigns. 6.1. Where to Obtain Freeware and Shareware Download Managers There are many sources of freeware and shareware download managers. One of the below should suit your needs. 6.1.1. Download Accelerator The Download Accelerator software is free and can be downloaded from: www.speedbit.com Download Accelerator 7 was released in 2004 and has many facets, including: automatic integration with your Web browser, e.g. Internet Explorer 4 and above, Netscape Navigator, etc; can resume downloads from a long list of file-type extensions such as MPeg, MP3, exe, zip, etc; automatic resume of failed downloads; manual pausing and resuming of downloads; Downloading in chunks from several servers simultaneously and checking several servers to find the fastest before commencing a download to enhance downloading speed; it promises no spyware will be placed on your computer; and so on (see the "Example of Using a Download Manager" sub-section below for how to use this software). 6.1.2. Download Wonder This is a freeware download program which can be obtained from: www.forty.com 6.1.3. RealDownload This one is from RealNetworks and is shareware which will run for 128 days, when you then need to pay thirty dollars to register it. The RealNetworks advertisement banner will then disappear. The Realnetworks home page is at: www.realnetworks.com 6.1.4. GetRight Getright is a manager which can pause, resume and schedule downloads for later. It has a beginner's basic mode to make things simple but the advanced mode provides more features. If you later register the software for around twenty dollars, the advertisement banner which comes with it will disappear. It can be downloaded from: www.getright.com 6.1.5. DLEXPERT Here is a manager which can resume a broken download, can download files in parts to speed things up, can run a virus checker as soon as a download has finished and can employ sounds to report events. It integrates with Internet Explorer and automatically looks for URLs written to the Clipboard. It has no advertising banners and is a free download from: www.yanew.com 6.1.6. regit This is yet another source for a download manager from: www.regit.com It incorporates most of the standard downloading enhancement features. 6.1.7. Download Assistant When installed, Download Assistant finds your browser and integrates itself with it. It then links itself up with your anti-virus software and uses it to scan programs as they are downloaded. It has an Internet Explorer-style interface, comes without company advertising banners and is free for the first month. Thereafter, to register it, the price is thirty dollars. It can be downloaded from: www.downloadassistant.com 6.1.8. Download Butler This provides the standard range of download features but you have to copy the link you want to go to and paste it into the Download Butler window to get things started. Its shareware and you have to pay thirty dollars to register it after 30 days trial. It can be found at: www.downloadbutler.com 6.1.9. Tweakdun This is not, strictly speaking, a download manager. What Tweakdun does is speed up your downloading times by making changes to such as your Win.ini file and tweaking your ISP to discover the highest MTU (maximum transition unit) setting you can use on your PC to get the best out of your MODEM using that ISP. An MTU is the largest packet size or piece of information that can be given to your computer in one chunk over the Internet. The software can be downloaded from: www.pattersondesigns.com 6.1.10. Go!zilla This is another multi-facetted download manager which is free of charge. it can, however, be somewhat in-your-face during downloads. It is available at: www.gozilla.com However, I would advise against this one as it is known to also place tracker cookies on your hard disk as well. 6.1.11. Winget Winget is a download manager which integrates itself with your browser and can automatically re-establish broken downloads. You download a zip file from: www.listsoft.com/13633 The download link is near the bottom of the home page. After unzipping the downloaded file, you install the program from the file called "winget.msi". 6.2. Where to Obtain Advertising Banner, Spyware and Cookie Removers There are many sources of freeware and shareware cookie and spyware removers. One of the below should suit your needs. 6.2.1. Ad-Aware Ad-Aware allows you to find and safely remove known cooky and other types of spyware parasites which are installed on your PC when you download certain programs, go onto some Websites and install software from dodgy CDs. It can also detect and remove undesirable entries made in your computer's registry file by unauthorised Websites and software. Therefore, the spyware perpetrators will not be able to track your movements on the Net and sell this information to advertising and marketing companies. Free programs such as Audio Galaxy, Gator, Bearshare and Go!zilla carry such spyware. At the time of writing the most up-to-date version of Ad-Aware is 6.05, Build 181, which can be freely downloaded from: www.lavasoftusa.com (See the "Example of Using a Spyware and cooky Remover" sub-section below for how to use this software.) 6.2.2. Popupkiller This free advertisements removing program is found at: www.software.sfx.net 6.2.3. Cookie Cruncher Here is a free cookie remover to get rid of any spyware cookies which have been lodged on your hard disk without your knowledge or permission from: www.rbaworld.com 6.2.4. Cookie Muncher This is another cookie remover but this time downloadable from a site which boasts blind-friendly software downloads and programs. It is specifically for Internet Explorer users but IE must not be running when you use it. It is freely downloadable from: www.blindsoftware.com Warning: Running the last-mentioned two pieces of software will remove all cookies, including any you might have wanted to keep, so use them with care. Remember, block removing cookies might mean you can no longer access certain Websites or Web pages because of the absence of the required cookie. You might like to use the below cookie viewer before deciding wither or not to block delete all cookies. 6.2.5. Karen's Cookie Viewer This screenreader-friendly program lets you view your cookies and decide which you want to keep and which to remove. Download it from: www.karenware.com 6.2.5. Proxomitron Proxometron is a powerful cookie and banner manager and remover which can also do much more and it is free. You can have it reformat and render in the way you want such things as forms, blinking text, JAVA script, frames, etc. You can have these things removed or displayed as text. It can be downloaded from: www.proxomitron.info 6.2.6. Spyware Doctor Spyware Doctor is from a famous software producer called PCtools. It has a paid-for version which is kept up to date with the latest signature files and has a larger variety of options than you get in the Free version. However, the free version will still allow you to find, remove and quarantine spyware. Spyware Doctor can detect tracker cookies, Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer hijackers, trojans, malware files and key counters. It has an interface which is quite usable with screenreaders and can also run an "Onguard" option in the background to keep your system monitored to detect any spyware as you use it. Note, though, as stated, the free version is not as up to date with spyware fingerprints/data files as the purchased version. You can download it from: www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/?ref=download.com 6.2.7. Spybot Search&Destroy Spybot Search&Destroy can find and remove tracker cookies, trojans and other kinds of malicious code. It is downloadable from: www.safer-networking.org 6.2.8. Online Cooky, banner and other Spyware Removers There are also some online Websites which will let you log onto them via the Internet and get the software on the Website server to scan your computer for spyware, scumware and other unwanted parasites whilst you are online, for example at: www.spywareinfo.com/xscan.php and www.doxdesk.com/parasite but you may also have to download some software from these kinds of sites first to be able to do this. You can also obtain a free scan of your system for unwanted cookies and spyware on the Zone Labs site at: www.zonelabs.com where you can also,if you like, download a free Internet firewall called Zone Alarm, which is reasonably screenreader-friendly. 6.3. Step by Step Example of Using a Download Manager--Download Accelerator 7.4 It must be said that Download Accelerator supports very few shortcut keystrokes but, nonetheless, its menu options and dialogue boxes are reasonably user-friendly, and it does most of its important work automatically in the background anyway. Its only shortcuts are CONTROL O to open a file and CONTROL S to save a file. Note, also, that when not online all of the "Start Download", "Download Now", "Resume All", etc, features are disabled. These will only become available after you go on line. Still, not all options will be usable, presumably because you only get access to the full program if you buy the fully featured version, e.g. Virus Checking may remain disabled, depending on the version of DAP you are using. Moreover, whether this particular download manager or one of the others listed above works best for you will, of course, depend largely on your personal preferences and the make and version of screenreader you use. 6.3.1. Download and Installation 1. See the general description of this manager in the above sub- section for a description of its range of features. Download Accelerator can be downloaded free from: www.speedbit.com Just TAB four times from the top of the home page to a link which ends in/dap74.exe and press ENTER. Or, if you cannot find it on the many pages and links on the Speedbit site, provided they have not changed things again (which they do often), you should be able to get the download started by typing the following URl and path of: www.speedbit.com/redir.asp?id=2308&filename=dap74.exe It should only take 10 to 15 minutes to download with a 56K modem. 2. Locate the dap74.exe" file (or whatever name is given to any later version) on your hard disk with Windows Explorer--it may have gone to your Desktop or to any folder which you have specified as your default download folder in advance. Press ENTER on the filename and it will start to install. 3. TAB to and complete the user details and other questions, pressing ENTER on "Next" each time it appears, until you reach the "Finish" button to complete the registration and installation. 4. Download Accelerator will now run a wizard which will ask you for certain facts, such as if you use a proxy server and if you use a firewall, and it will run a connection check for you on this information, so you will need to go online at this point so that it can achieve this successfully. You then again eventually end up on another "Finish" button to press ENTER on to compleat things. 5. Lastly, for Download Accelerator to work properly, you should restart your computer. 6.3.2. Using Download Accelerator 1. A. Download Accelerator integrates itself with your Web browser and so automatically runs in the background every time you go onto the Net and download a file with one of its supported file extensions, e.g. MPeg, MP3, zip, exe and many more. If you are downloading a file which is not supported, you can still achieve this but you must do it by holding down the CONTROL and ALT keys whilst clicking on or pressing ENTER on the file download link. 1. B. As the download is taking place, you should be able to go into navigation or mouse mode and observe certain pieces of information, such as the fact that Download Accelerator is actually functioning, the speed of download in Kbs per second, the filename of the file you are downloading, the place it is being downloaded to on your hard disk, the remaining time it will take to complete the download, whether the site you are on supports resumption of downloads should you get cut off, etc. 2. A. If you wish to run the software manually, launch the program from your Desktop or by navigating to: C:\Program Files\Download Accelerator\Download Accelerator and by pressing ENTER. 2. B. Running it in this way lets you view the various menus on the menu bar by pressing ALT and ARROWING right, left, up and down through the menus and options. 2. C. To get Download Accelerator to download a file manually, press ENTER on the "Add New Download" option in the Download Menu. Then type the exact filename in here and press ENTER. Remember, it must be the path to the precise place and filename you want, which must start with http:// and end with a supported filename extension. You may not know such precise information, however, so just relying on it running automatically as in 1A and B above may be preferable. 6.3.3. Resuming a Lost or Paused Download 1. To pause a download, with the DAP program having been launched manually, press ALT D, P. You may wish to do this if you have to turn your PC off or if you urgently need to use it for something else in the middle of a long download, for instance. 2. Alternatively, should your download be unexpectedly cut off for any reason, you should be able to resume downloading from where the download was cut off by Launching Download Accelerator whilst online. Note: You must be online to achieve the below results. 3. A list of downloaded files will appear on screen after launch (you may have to view these in mouse mode). 4. Press ALT D (for download) and ARROW up to the "Resume All" option and press ENTER to recommence downloading of any accidentally cut-off or willingly paused downloads. All files/programs which are currently in your "Add New Download" list (whether added manually via the URL Menu or by allowing Download Accelerator to run in automatic mode) which have been deliberately or inadvertently cut-off will be picked up and, if at all possible, the downloads will be recommenced from where they were cut off. You will be advised of the successful resumption of any downloads. 5. You will be told when the download resumption is complete and where the file has been placed, which is likely to be your Desktop unless you have changed the default. 6. If you want to have a good look at the configuration defaults (usual settings) which Download Accelerator uses (and perhaps change some of these), with DAP running manually, press ALT T (for Tools) and then O (for Options" and also press ALT D (for download) and ARROW up to "Properties" and press ENTER whilst online. One interesting option here which can be enabled is "Always Resume" whereby files of between 300 Kb and 10 Mb can be automatically resumed with a slow MODEM as soon as you go back on line. However, the program authors recommend that you resume a lost download manually as outlined above for the most reliable results. 7. To remove all of the download URLs/filenames from your Download Menu "Add New Download" list either press ALT D and then ENTER on "Remove", or when you have the focus on one of them press DEL to remove only that single URL. 6.3.4. Changing Configurations with the DAP 7.4 Configuration Wizard You can change all of the configurations you firstly selected when installing DAP by using the Configuration Wizard. 1. Go online first, otherwise things will not work. Then launch DAP from its place on your hard disk. 2. Press ALT T (for Tools) and then C (for Configuration Wizard). 3. TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. You will now be taken through the same or very similar pages and options as were offered to you earlier in the installation section above. Just deal with them in the same way. 5. If you are running this wizard because your computer set-up has changed, for example, if you have installed a firewall, you will be able to make changes in here. For instance, the fourth step you come to will offer you the opportunity to change your option from not having a firewall installed to "I am Using the Firewall Application Selected Below" and TABBING once from here will enable you to ARROW down several options of firewalls, such as Sygate, Zone Alarm, etc, to the one you are using. 6. The configuration will be tested online and you will be told if it succeeded. It will only succeed if you are online before running this wizard. Note 1: With Download Accelerator, you can recommence a broken download simply by going to the original download link with your browser and asking for another download with the same conditions, e.g. "Save to Disk", same filename, etc. Download Accelerator will recognise that there has already been a part download of this same file and offer to recommence from where you last left of. You will be on the "OK" button, so just press ENTER to recommence. This, in practice, therefore means that, after setting DAP up from its own interface after launching it, you rarely have to do this again, as it will automatically run itself in the background every time you go online with your browser to find the best download sites, record the state of download of files in case they are cut-of, etc, without you having to do anything more yourself. Note 2: With the more up-to-date versions of Download Accelerator, such as Version 7.4 which is being considered here, you get a Search and a Media menu which you can use to search for music files and other media files on the Net and on your hard disk. You also have access to an "FTP" menu to have FTP downloads monitored and resumed if they are lost. Note 3: Again, with later versions of DAP, you may find that every time you turn your computer on DAP tries to take you online by opening up the Windows Dial-Up dialogue. If this happens, and you do not want to go on line at this time, just press the ESCAPE key several times to stop this. 6.4. Step by Step Example of Using a Spyware and cooky Remover-- Ad-Aware Ad-Aware does not support keyboard shortcuts of its own but is still usable with a screenreader. You can use it by going into your screenreaders mouse mode and left or right clicking on buttons and options, etc, or, with some versions of Ad-Aware, you can use special JAWS scripts to automate the procedure, if you are a JAWS user. (See the general description of this spyware remover earlier in this section for an idea of its full range of features.) 6.4.1. Download and Installation Ad-Aware Version 6.05 can be downloaded free from: www.lavasoftusa.com or www.jfwlite.com/programs You receive a typical self-extracting .exe file, which will download to your Desktop by default or wherever else you specify that it should go. To install Ad-Aware from this .exe file: 1. Locate the downloaded file and press ENTER or SPACEBAR on it. 2. The installation is fairly straightforward and typical of Windows. It opens on the welcome screen and you just TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 3. Next comes the licence agreement, so TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. The next screen of information tells you that the program will be installed at: C:\Programs\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware6 so TAB to and press ENTER on "Next" again to accept this. 5. You now encounter a list of additional extras to the standard program and English language to install if you like, including the Ad-Aware user manual and several other languages. TAB to this list and select any extras you might want, e.g. the first option is to install the user manual, so press SPACEBAR to select this and then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. If you want to install all of these extras, you could have pressed CONTROL A to select all in the above list. 6. You TAB again to the "Next" button and press ENTER. 7. Lastly, after a few seconds installing time, you TAB to and press ENTER on the "Finish" button to complete the procedure. Ad-Aware will have been installed and a shortcut will automatically have been placed on your Desktop from which to launch it. 6.4.2. Using Ad-Aware from its On-Screen Interface Ad-Aware does not have a conventional Windows-style Menu Bar and sub-menu system. You have to do everything via buttons and checkboxes on the main screen in mouse mode. For people not using JAWS or without the correct version of JAWS and/or Ad-Aware, you can use it as directed below. However, if you are a JAWS user, you may wish to skip to the sub-section after the one immediately below and try using Ad-Aware with the special Ad-Aware JAWS scripts which sometimes work with it. 1. start Ad-Aware from its shortcut on the Desktop or from its place of installation in Program Files\Lavasoft\Ad-Aware6. 2. You now go into your screenreader's mouse/navigation/jaws mode and ARROW down the screen from the top to get an idea of what is on there. Three-quarters of the way down the screen you will encounter a "Scan Now" button and you should place your cursor on this and then press your screenreader's left mouse click key. In future it will be quicker to start finding this "Scan Now" button by going straight to the bottom of the screen and ARROWING up to it. You can also start a scan by activating the "Start" button. 3. If you are not automatically taken to a "Next" button you will have to go to the bottom of the next screen which comes up and then ARROW up to this "Next" button and again left click on this to commence the scanning of your system. This scanning/checking for spyware may take more than 10 minutes. 4. If some form of spyware cooky or other spyware file is found, Ad-Aware will emit an unpleasant warning sound and give you the opportunity of selecting and deleting these unwanted files. You can delete them as outlined in the next sub-section. Ad-Aware sends its deleted files to what is known as the "Quarantine", where you can later examine them and completely delete them if you wish. Ad-Aware keeps a count of the number of times you have scanned your system with it, of how many spyware files it has removed from your computer and of how many such files it currently holds in its objects quarantined folder. 6.4.3. Removing Detected Spyware If Ad-Aware tells you that it has found spyware files or unwanted running processes or registry entries on your system, you should remove them as follows: 1. After the warning sound (in mouse mode) you should ARROW down the screen to a "Next" button and press ENTER. However, in some cases, you may find that you are automatically taken to this "Next" button. 2. Now ARROW down the screen to just past the "Scan Complete" and "Summary" lines to a list of objects found which will have their filenames in a list. 3. On any of these found objects just press your right mouse click simulation key to bring up a menu which you can ARROW up or down to a "Select All" option to press ENTER or SPACEBAR on. You can also select such as tracker cookies only for deletion and have a copy of your Windows registry copied to hard or floppy disk for examination to find suspect lines of code in it for removal. Note that not all screenreaders can "see" this Context menu list of options without you going into mouse mode. 4. Again locate another "Next" button in mouse mode and left click it. 5. Lastly, near the top of the screen, you locate an "OK" button to press ENTER or left click on to complete the removal to the quarantine of your spyware files. 6. If you have finished with Ad-Aware, just press ALT F4 to close it down. 6.4.4. Emptying the Ad-Aware Quarantine Folder When you have several spyware files in the quarantine objects folder, you can empty it by: 1. ARROWING to the "Quarantine Objects" or the "Open Quarantine List" button on screen in mouse mode and pressing your screenreader's left mouse click key on it. 2. On the next screen go to any one of the named objects and press your screenreaders right mouse button on this. You may also find that pressing SHIFT F10 works wen on this screen. 3. In the Context Menu which opens up, ARROW to "Delete All Archives" and press ENTER on this to finish. 4. All spyware may have been deleted from the Quarantine folder at this stage or you may firstly have to press ENTER on an "OK" button to confirm. 5. If you have nothing else to do in Ad-Aware, press ALT F4 to close it down. Note: Ad-Aware is not the most screenreader-friendly program you will ever encounter but, unfortunately, not many of these free spyware utilities are. The most difficult thing you are likely to encounter is the step where you have to select the found spyware files before they can be deleted. Sometimes, particularly if it has only found one suspect file, you cannot get focus on this file to select it. Using your screenreader's route cursers together command whilst on the found objects list may succeed in opening the Context Menu to select files for deletion. You may then be able to ARROW down the Context Menu to the delete all option or you may have to go into mouse mode with your screenreader to be able to view and hear these menu options and left click on the one you want; it really does depend on the version of Ad-Aware and on the screenreader and version of that screenreader you have as to how you will have to approach this. It seems that Ad-Aware gets more and more unusable without special scripts and sets each time you downlod updated data and signature files. 6.4.5. Using Special JAWS Scripts to Automate the use of Ad-Aware If you are a JAWS user, you can download the special scripts for use with Ad-Aware from: www.jfwlite.com/programs and they should be put into the usual scripts folder of, for example: c:\jaws51\settings\enu (with JAWS 5.1) or c:\documents and settings\user name\application data\freedom scientific\jaws 6.0\settings\enu (with JAWS 6.0) Whether these scripts will work for you will depend on the version of JAWS you have and the version of Ad-Aware which is current at the time you download the scripts. If they do not work for you, you can still use Ad-Aware in mouse mode as directed earlier in this section. The basics of how you use these scripts is as follows: 1. Start Ad-Aware from the icon on your Desktop. 2. Press CONTROL S to activate the "Scan Now" button. 3. Press CONTROL N to activate the "Next" button to start the scan. 4. Wait for the scan to complete (which could take 10 minutes or longer, depending on how much software you have on your hard disk) and then press CONTROL M to mark all of the spyware detected. You will know if some spyware is found because the program emits a quite horrible warning sound wen it finishes scanning. If no spyware is present on your computer, you will be told that nothing was found and there will be no warning sound heard. 5. If some spyware is detected, you then press CONTROL N for "Next" and you will be asked whether or not you wish to delete the files. Press ENTER on the "OK" button to delete them and finish. If no spyware was detected and therefore none was marked, you can exit by simply pressing ALT F4. 6.4.6. Updating Ad-Aware's Scanning Files In a similar vein to keeping a virus-checker up to date with the latest virus data files, you must keep Ad-Aware updated by allowing it to go onto the Internet regularly and download and automatically install updates to its data files. You might wish to do this once a week or at least once a month. Do this by: 1. Locate (in mouse mode) The "Open Web Update" button near the top of the opening Ad-Aware screen when you launch it and left click on this. 2. Then ARROW down the screen to a "Connect" or "Connect Settings" button and left click this. 3. If you have an always on line Internet connection, you will immediately start receiving the update download. If you have a dial-up connection, you will find yourself in your usual dial-up dialogue box to go onto the Net with and start receiving the download. The downloaded update will automatically install and update itself on your system. ******** >SECTION 7 INTERNET BANKING 7.1. Online Banking Introduction and Security Whilst some Internet banking sites can be a little tricky to use from the keyboard, others are perfectly usable after a little practise. Many sites have a demo or dummy run feature on them for you to familiarise yourself with and determine if a particular banking site is for you and see if they are usable with your screen reader. Once set up, Internet banking can provide a relatively quick and very convenient method of transacting business or viewing your savings and obtaining up-to-date bank statements. In many cases, you can also obtain some of the best rates of interest from online banking. Such banking is invariably conducted in a Secure environment, as all transactions and personal details are heavily encrypted and made as secure as possible from outside influences. You will be advised when you are about to enter such a secure page and when you are about to leave it (for more on security, see "Security Issues" in Section 3). A number of Internet banking sites are listed below for you to have a look at but one I can personally confirm is usable is that offered by the Nationwide building society. The E-Savings account provides a good rate of interest, at around 5 per cent gross as of January 2005, and so is one of the two sites which I have chosen for my below detailed example of how to use Internet banking. 7.2. A Selection of Internet Banking Sites I have not opened accounts on any of the banks in this list, other than the Nationwide and ING Direct, so I cannot comment precisely on their usability and navigability, but the sites looked OK when I went onto them for a general browse around. It is not practicable, of course, for me to open several accounts on numerous bank sites. You will have to try them yourselve to see which works best for you if you do not wish to experiment with the Nationwide or ING Direct. The details given in this list were correct as of the middle of January 2005, but are, of course, subject to change at the banks' will. In particular the rates of interest will not stay the same for long. 7.2.1. Smile Online Bank Smile Internet banking HQ is in Skelmersdale and their Website is at: www.smile.co.uk Smile have six types of online account. The savings account is called "Savings Account" and usually provides a good rate of interest and even more interest if you also open a "Current Account" with them as well. Smile is an Internet-only bank, so it has no branches of its own. However, they are allied to the Co-Operative bank, so you can transfer cash there to pick up personally if you wish. You can also use your banking card at the Post Office to obtain up to œ100 in cash. The Smile bank, via its current account, also provides all of the normal banking facilities, such as a chequebook and credit and direct debit facilities, etc. For more details, phone 0870 8432265 or just have a look on the above Website. 7.2.2. Cahoot Online Bank Cahoot are at: www.cahoot.co.uk This is another bona fide internet-only bank but this time allied to the Abby National. Cahoot's current account usually pays a good rate of interest. It provides instant access together with the ability to set-up standing orders and direct debits but there is no chequebook supplied. There are some online accounts with chequebooks but the rates of interest are lower. Cahoot allow œ250 overdraft at no charge and provide a credit card at only around eight per cent interest. For more details phone 0870 6000655 or just have a look on the above Website. 7.2.3. Halifax Bank The Halifax's Internet banking site is at: www.halifax-online.co.uk It is a savings-only account, so you cannot have a chequebook with it, set up standing orders, etc. However, you can have your wages paid into it and you can transfer money from it to other Halifax accounts which have chequebooks, and the like. This account is called the "Websaver". It usually pays a good rate of interest. For more information, phone 0845 6039010 or just have a look on the above Website. 7.2.4. First Direct Bank Here is another Internet banking provider at: www.firstdirect.com The three possible online accounts, rather unimaginatively, are called "Savings Account", "Current Account" and "Credit Card Account". You can transfer money on the Net from one to the other but the Savings Account does not have such as chequebook and direct debit facilities. It usually pays a reasonable rate of interest. For more details call 0800 242424 or just have a look on the above Website. 7.2.5. Barclays Bank Barclays Net banking site is called "E-Savings" and is found at: www.ibank.barclays.co.uk It can only be opened online and is used in conjunction with a Barclays branch-based current account. No chequebook, standing orders, etc, are available directly from the E-Savings account. The interest rates tend to vary from around 1 to 5 pre cent gross but will change frequently. For more information, phone 0845 6002323 or just have a look on the above Website. 7.2.6. Natwest Bank Natwest's online savings-only account is also called "E-Savings". It is at: www.natwest.co/uk You also have to have a standard branch-based current account with which to transfer money to and from the E-Savings account. As usual, no direct debits, standing orders, chequebooks, and the like, are usable directly from the E-Savings account. The rates of interest are usually reasonable. Further details from 0845 6025588 or just have a look on the above Website. 7.3. Step by Step Example of Opening and Using Online Banking--The ING Direct Bank Site The ING Direct bank is an online-only bank and so has no traditional branches, although you can deal with their central office via the telephone. You can open an account by phone or via their Internet site. You can then withdraw funds using their Website or using your phone pad buttons with their automated procedures or by speaking to a member of staff to do this. This bank only provides one account, which is a high interest saving account giving one of the country's best rates of interest for a savings account with no strings attached, e.g. no minimum balance and no period of notice when withdrawing cash. To open an ING Direct account, you have to have a linked feeder/receiver or donor/receiver account with another bank or building society from which to transfer money to and fro, e.g. a standard current account with the likes of Barclays, Natwest, etc. ING Direct use the BACS and CAPS transfer systems and monies you withdraw from your ING account to your linked account will be available three days after you request the transfer. You have to open your ING account with a cheque initially, after which you can transfer funds from your linked account to the ING Direct account and withdraw funds from your ING Account to your linked account. You can also top up your ING account with further cheques, if you like. Since the ING Direct Website is quite small, offering only one account, I will exemplify the opening of this saving account wholly online. The next example shows a more complicated site with many accounts and facilities and I have opened that account partly online and partly by visiting the local branch of that building society. 7.3.1. Opening an ING Direct Account Online To open an ING Direct savings account online: 1. With your browser, go to: www.ingdirect.co.uk 2. When the home page, which has only around 16 links on it, opens ARROW through some of the information and links and have a look at some of these links by pressing ENTER on them, for instance, the "About ING Direct", "About our high interest savings account", etc. 3. TAB to the "Open an ING Direct Savings Account Now" link and press ENTER. 4. ARROW past the initial links which appear on every page to some paragraphs which advise you that to open an account you must be at least 18, a UK resident for tax purposes, etc, and when you reach the "Please click on the button below to open an account in minutes" line, TAB once and press ENTER on the "Click here to open an account now" link. 5. You now come onto the typical secure server dialogue to advise you that no one else can view what you are doing now, so press ENTER on the "OK" button you should already be on. 6. You now have to go through seven distinct steps to open this account, as outlined below. Step 1: Personal Details You now start to complete the account opening procedure. Step one of this is by far the most complicated and time-consuming and potentially difficult. Typically, they say it will only take a few minutes but, in reality, with a screenreader, it is more likely to take you 30 minutes to complete everything. However, the experience should give you a good idea of what this sort of thing is all about and you may also in future encounter bank accounts which will permit nothing else but online opening, so this should be a good exercise in what to expect. 1. After a few seconds, the Step 1 of 7 steps page will load in. This first page wants your personal details. In order for you to get some idea of the full titles of each editfield you will be required to complete, ARROW down from the top to the bottom of the screen to listen to each editfield title, as not all of them will be spoken out to you when you go into forms mode and start TABBING through them. You may even wish to use a recorder to record this personal information page so that you know what all editfields need you to type in but, of course, I will walk you through this below. 2. From the top of this page, TAB or ARROW (or use your screenreader's jump to first editfield hot key, e.g. CONTROL SHIFT HOME in HAL, CONTROL INSERT HOME in JAWS and ALT Control down ARROW or just the X key in Window-Eyes) until you get to the first editfield entitled "Joint Account" and press ENTER (or CAPSLOCK ENTER with HAL 6) to go into forms mode if your screenreader does not automatically take you into forms mode. If you are opening a joint account, leave this checked; if not, ARROW to the "No" option to open an account for a single person. 3. TAB once to the "Title" field and ARROW down this list to "Mr", Mrs", etc. 4. TAB again to the "Gender" list and ARROW to whatever you are. 5. Now TAB again to the first of three small editfields to enter your date of birth into but the titles of these may not be spoken by your screenreader. The first wants you to type in your day of birth, e.g. 10 (for the 10th day); TAB once, the second your month of birth, e.g. 08 (for August); TAB once again, and the third field wants you to type in your year of birth, e.g. 1966. 6. Next TAB once to the "First Name" field and type your Christian name in here; TAB then to "Middle Name" and type this in if you have one; and then TAB to "Last name" and enter this. 7. Now TAB to "Postcode" and type this in here as normal. 8. You now TAB through a few flat name/number and house name/number editfields, so, for example, if you live in a house with no name and the number 20, just type "20" into the "House Number" field. 9. Now TAB to the "Find my address" button and press ENTER, which will cause the system to search for an find your full address, etc, on its database of UK householders/residents. It will display this on screen for confirmation. You will probably have to come out of forms/editing mode (if you have not automatically done so) to be able to read the screen more easily at this stage. 10. You next TAB or ARROW to a line which says that if you have been in your current address less than three years, then you will have to complete your last address details as well. This comprises two editfields but it is not clear just what figures it wants you to complete in these. What it wants in editfield number one is the number of years you have been in your current address, so type this in here, e.g. "10" for 10 years, and then TAB once to the second field to type in the number of months, e.g. "0" if you have lived there for over three years because this field is not then of any particular importance. In the case of you only having lived in your current address for less than three years, for instance, enter 2 in the first of these fields and, say, 4 in the second field for having lived their for two years and four months. In this latter case, you will have more editfields to complete with address details, etc, if you have been here for less than three years. 11. TAB to the next field, which is the "Phone Number" field, and enter your correct phone number with your code in the first of these fields and your main number in the second of these phone fields, after pressing TAB to get on to it. 12. The next two presses of TAB take you to each of two mobile phone number fields which you can complete if appropriate or leave blank. 13. Now TAB once more to the "Email Address" field and type this in here and TAB once again and type it in again to confirm it. 14. You now TAB to a "How did you hear about us" title with a list of options to ARROW to and leave focus on the appropriate answer, e.g. "Billboards", "TV", etc. If you now TAB again you will get another list to be more specific in, e.g. if you chose "TV" above, you will be able to ARROW to the channel you heard the ad on, e.g. "ITV". 15. Another press of TAB takes you to a useful box you can check on if you like but the title to this box may not be spoken by your screenreader. This is to receive quarterly statements in large print if you are visually impaired. Going into forms mode (by pressing ENTER) will permit you to check this on with the SPACEBAR if it does not check on automatically for you. I have suggested that they add another option to this for Braille statements and that they attach editfield titles alongside of all of their editfields so that screenreaders can "see" them and read them out when in forms mode. 16. The next two editfields you TAB to are to do with completing details if you are opening an account as part of a promotion and you will therefore know what to enter in here if so; otherwise just skip them. 17. Lastly, as part of step 1, you TAB to a "Continue" button to press ENTER on. If you have completed everything correctly, you will be moved to a new page for step 2 of the procedure. If you have not completed a required editfield or given details which the system knows to be incorrect, you will be told what the problem is near the top of the screen and be able to go back and correct this omission or mistake. Note that you cannot use fictitious names, addresses, phone numbers, etc, to get you past this stage. If you are experimenting with this site for experience purposes only, you can use your correct personal details at this and the next step and simply duck out and abort the account set-up when you get to the final submission step. Step 2: Bank Details You now have to supply your bona fide linked bank current account details for the bank you wish to use as the account for money you withdraw from the ING account to go into when you need to get funds out of the ING account, such as your Barclays, Natwest, HSBC, Lloyds TSB or other bank or building society current account which you already have in your name. 1. On the next page, ARROW quickly past the usual header links and you will encounter a Customer Number which will have been allocated to you. 2. TAB to a link entitled "Your bank Sort Code" and go into forms mode with ENTER and type in your current account with your linked bank's Sort Code in a single six figure string with no spaces. 3. TAB once more and type your linked current account Account Number in here. 4. TAB once to the "Find bank details" button and press ENTER. These will be found and verified from their system and connected databases and confirmed on screen. 5. Lastly for this step, TAB to "Continue" and press ENTER. Step 3: Linked Account Details 1. On this new page you will be able to ARROW through information about your bank details, when and how money will be transferred from one account to another, i.e. from your linked current account with such as Barclays, Natwest, Lloyds TSB, etc, and your new ING Direct account. You will be given some direct debit details. 2. Then TAB to "Continue" and press ENTER. Step 4: Direct Debit Guarantee 1. On the next page more direct debit details are provided to ARROW through and you will be told that this DD will not be set up until you send them an initial account opening cheque to open the account. What is happening here is that ING Direct will be setting up a DD between themselves and your linked bank current account to permit the transfer of monies between both accounts. 2. Then TAB to "Continue" and press ENTER. Step 5: Personal Details Confirmation 1. You can on this page ARROW through a final check of the details you have provided and their system has found to be sure that they are all correct. 2. When you reach a "Please tick this box to confirm that you agree to our terms and conditions" you will find alongside or below it a checkbox which you will have to check on to be able to move further, so press ENTER to activate forms mode and, if the checkbox does not automatically check on, press SPACEBAR to achieve this. 3. Now TAB to "Continue" and press ENTER. Step 6: Account Options 1. If you are opening a joint account, you will have to complete many of the same details you provided for yourself for the other person to be named on this account. 2. After completing all required fields, TAB to "Continue" and press ENTRE. Step 7: Confirmation of Account 1. This last page is the confirmation page and also asks you to give your account a name if you like but this is not essential. ARROW through this last page to check all is in order, to note your Customer and Account Numbers and to make a note of the ING Direct address which you have to post your initial opening account cheque to. You would be advised to print this page out for your records (CONTROL P will achieve this). 2. Lastly, this procedure ends by you TABBING to the last "Continue" button to submit your details to the ING Direct computer and finish this online registration. Note that if you are only going through this example exercise for practice and experience purposes, do not press ENTER on this final "Continue" button but, instead, press ALT F4 to close things down and abort the procedure. If you do want to open an account, press ENTER on the final "Continue" button and your account will be set up on the ING Direct computer pending them receiving your first check. This essential account opening cheque will be awaited for 45 days but if you do not ratify the account within this time, it will be closed. You can, of course, also put more funds into your INg account by sending them further cheques after your first one if you wish, rather than transferring money from your linked current account to them. The postal address for your essential first account opening cheque and any others you may also elect to send them is: ING Direct, freepost NATW1784, READING, RG6 1BR. Note 1: The above example, of course, is a practical exercise example and demonstration of dealing with this type of banking site. It is not the easiest of banking sites to complete forms on but it is quite typical and is also a site with few links and complications from an accounts choices point of view. If you want to open an account with ING Direct and find the online forms to difficult to complete, you can always just phone them on 0800 3768844 and a member of staff will open an account for you. You can thereafter use the staff, the automated phone button system or the Website to transfer funds to and from your account with ING Direct and your linked current account. 7.3.2. Transferring Funds from Your ING Direct Account to your Linked Current Account The below procedure is somewhat tortuous at first but you soon get used to it if you use it regularly. It may take you 15 minutes at first but only 5 minutes once you know what you are doing. Again, it provides a typical procedure to go through to deal with moving money around on an Internet banking site and so is a good example to try your hand on as a practical exercise. After you have deposited funds into your above opened ING Direct savings account you may wish to get access to some of these by transferring a sum to your linked current account at your regular bank. You do this as follows: 1. With your browser, go to: www.ingdirect.co.uk 2. On the home page TAB twice to the "Log into Bank online" link and press ENTER. 3. The usual secure server notice will come up and you press ENTER on the "OK" button to close this and move on. 4. On the Customer Login page which now loads in you should ARROW down to the "Please enter your Customer Number" line and just below this you will find an editfield to press ENTER on to go into forms mode. type your Customer number straight into this and then TAB to "Continue" and press ENTER. 5. The next page is where you entre any random three digits from your six digit PIN number which the site asks for. This could be the first digit of your PIN, the fourth digit and the fifth digit or any other combination of three of these digits, so carefully note which three of these figures it requests. Then ARROW further down from this information paragraph to the word "PIN" and below this come the editfields to type your PIN into. Press ENTER on the first of these three fields to enter forms mode and then type these three PIN digits one at a time. The cursor will jump to the editfields automatically after you type each individual digit in. Therefore, after typing the third of your required PIN digits in, you can TAB once to the "Continue" button and press ENTER. Note that after you have once carried out the next step, you no longer have to provide a new memorable date as part of your security details but will rather find three editfields just after the above three fields for your PIN number and you can type your memorable date in here as directed below but you only need to do it once from this point onwards. It does not need confirming. 5. You will be able to type your current memorable date, place or name in at the above stage just after your PIN numbers if you have already created one but, if not, you will have to make up and type in a new memorable date for current and future use as added security. So ARROW down the page to the first of six editfields, each of which wants two digits typing into it. The first three fields are for a day, month and year date entry (do not use your own date of birth) and the second three are to repeat these figures to confirm that you have done it correctly. So, when you reach the first field, press ENTER to go into forms mode and, for example, type 02 for the 2nd day of the month, "10 for October and 66 for 1966. As with the PIN fields, the cursor automatically jumps to the next field for you as soon as you have completed the current field. When you reach the fourth field, just repeat the details of 02, 10 and 66. 6. Now TAB to "Continue" again and press ENTER. 7. The Account Summary page now comes up and you can TAB or ARROW through several links and paragraphs of information to view your most recent transaction on your account or accounts (you can have more than one savings account). If you press ENTER on the "View quarterly online statements" you will be able to see all of those pertinent to your account when you have been using the service for a while. Using the "Print" button below the above link will send copies of your statements to your printer. To transfer money from this account to your linked bank current account press ENTER on the "Move my money" link near the top of the screen. 8. The Move My Money page loads in and you should ARROW past the standard links at the top of the page to underneath the "Move money from" line to a "Transfer from" line where, if you have more than one savings account, you can ARROW to the specific account you want to remove money from by its specific account name (if you gave it one) or its number. You will have to open this combobox by pressing ENTER, SPACEBAR or going into mouse mode and left clicking on it to reveal your single or multiple accounts. If you have only one savings account and you did not give it a name when you set it up, it will simply be listed as Account 1. 9. Now ARROW down to a "Transfer to" line and put focus on the linked current account you want to transfer the money to by ARROWING to it if you have more than one linked account you can transfer to. 10. Next ARROW down to the "Amount œ" line and then to an editfield to press ENTER on to go into forms mode to type in the amount you want to transfer. In the first field type the number of pounds, e.g. 50 (but with no pence) and then TAB once to another field where you type in the pence, e.g. 00, for œ50.00 altogether. You may hear your screenreader read out a decimal point when you TAB to the second editfield for the pence. 11. Moving further down the page you will find a "carry out transfer today" line with a checkbox to press ENTER on to check on if it is not already checked on to move your money straightaway but it is usually already checked on. Otherwise, you can TAB to listboxes further down the page to a number of lists where you can specify any future day and date you want the money to be transferred on by ARROWING down these lists. 12. Lastly, TAB to "Continue" as normal and press ENTRE to complete the transfer. 13. You then have to press ENTER on the "Log Out" link near the top of the screen and you return to the home page and press ALT F4 or ALT F, C to close down your browser. Note: Again be aware that if you find the above too problematic, you can use the ING Direct phone service or their staff to transfer funds to and from your accounts, so you will never be left stranded without being able to get to your money (but do not do this until you have mastered this site because you have obtained this tutorial to become competent at using Internet sites and forms!). 7.3.3. Other Facilities Available on the ING Direct Site You have several of the usual facilities available on the ING site after logging onto your accounts page. They include such as viewing up-to-date statements, viewing your last few transactions, viewing your present account(s) balance and quickly opening more ING accounts as a known account holder. 7.4. Step by Step Example of Opening and Using Online Banking--The Nationwide Building Society Site With this high street building society, which also has an online banking site, you can open an account entirely online or do part of the opening by going to your local branch and part by going online. As the last example was done wholly online, I will exemplify the opening of this account by starting things off at the local branch and then completing the process on their Internet Website as, initially, some people may feel happier with this until they become more accustomed to Internet banking. 7.4.1. Making Arrangements with Your Local Branch and Providing Identification 1. You will have to open two accounts: a "Flex" account, which is a basic current account; and the actual "E-Savings" account, which is for leaving any surplus cash in to earn higher interest. For more information, phone the Customer Services on 0845 7302010. 2. Go to your local Nationwide branch with appropriate ID, e.g. two or three up-to-date utility bills plus your Birth Certificate or Passport, and open a Flex and E-Savings account. 3. You will be vetted for a debit card as well and a chequebook and small overdraft facility. You will be told if your application is accepted and then you go home to await further details. 7.4.2. What Happens Next 4. After seven or so days, your Customer Number, Pass Number and chequebook come through the post, all in three separate envelops. 7.4.3. Activating a Branch Opened Account Online 5. At this stage you will have to "activate" the E-Savings account before you can transfer money and access your account details. Do this as in 6 to 9 below. 6. You sign on by going onto the site at: www.nationwide.co.uk and by TABBING around 12 times to and pressing ENTER on the "Sign on to Internet Banking" link. After a few seconds you will be told that you are in a secure environment for sending and viewing information, so press ENTER on "OK" or "Yes". Now you are on the secure sign on page and you must complete several editfields of information specific to you and your account, as follows: A. TAB or ARROW to the "Customer Number" heading and in the editfield underneath this Type in your ten digit customer number after pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR (or CAPSLOCK ENTER with HAL 6.03 and later) to go into your screenreader's forms and editing mode. B. Then TAB once and type in one of your secret items of "Memorable Information" in the next editfield below. You will have chosen these whilst at the building society opening the account. C. You next come to a series of three single digit comboboxes where you are required to provide three of the six digits of your personal password which you will have been asked for. So again press the TAB key and in the first of the next three combobox editfields you do not type figures in but rather ARROW down a list of digits to the required digit which the site requests from you.Then TAB once to the next single digit field and ARROW down to the figure which the site asks for and, lastly, TAB to the third single digit field and ARROW to the necessary digit. D. Lastly, TAB to the "Sign On Now" button and press ENTER. Note: If you prefer, you can get directly to the secure log on/sign on page instead of having to find the "Sign On" link on the above home page by using the address path of: https://olb2.nationet.com/signon/index2.asp 7. The next page is where you can now view the amounts in your Flex account and any others you may have. It is also here where you must activate the account. ARROW or TAB well down the page to the "Flex Account" link and press ENTER. Then move well down the next page to "Activate E-Savings" and press ENTER. 8. You ARROW down the next page and have to check a box to say you are a UK resident by pressing SPACEBAR and then type in your country of residence, e.g. British. Otherwise, check the option to say that you are not a resident and enter your country. TAB and then press ENTER to say you agree to the terms and conditions. You next TAB to a confirmation button and press ENTER to confirm/send these details. This is the end of the "activate" process which you only have to do once. If you make any mistakes, you will be told what they are and be able to redo the mistake. 9. When you have finished, you go back to near the top of the page and press ENTER on "Sign Off" to finish. you will be told that you can now close down your browser and log off. You will now have another five days to wait before you can use the activated accounts. Note: You must go to and press ENTER on "Sign Off" every time you use this site before leaving it. 7.4.4. How to Move Cash from One Account to Another Online To transfer money between Nationwide accounts: 1. Load Internet Explorer (or your browser of preference), press CONTROL O and then go onto the site by either typing into the address bar: www.nationwide.co.uk to get onto the home page; or https://olb2.nationet.com/signon/index2.asp to skip the home page and get straight to the Sign On page. If you take this faster route, you are likely to get the secure server message on screen at this stage and will have to press ENTER on "OK" to close this and carry on. 2. Sign on as described in step 6 in the previous sub-section by providing your Customer Number, Memorable word and the three digits of your password which the system requests. 3. After the next page loads in, TAB down around nine times to the "Transfer Money" link and press ENTER. This link is, in fact, in the second frame on the site, so you could get here quicker by pressing your screenreader's jump through frames hot key or the Windows shortcut of CONTROL TAB and then by TABBING to the "Transfer" link. 4. Now, on the next page which loads in, TAB down to a "From" heading and press ENTER and you will then be in a drop down list which you can ARROW up and down to highlight the account you wish to move the money from. All of your accounts with the Nationwide will be in this list. 5. Now, again, just TAB once to another listbox headed "To" in which you can ARROW up and down to put focus on the account you wish the money to be transferred into. 6. Next TAB once to a blank editfield where you type in the amount you wish to transfer between your two Nationwide accounts. Type the sum in here with no commas but using a decimal point if necessary, e.g. 5000.25. 7. Lastly, TAB again to the "Transfer" button and press ENTER to complete this stage of the transaction. Note that there is also a "Clear" button here for you to use if you have made a hash of the above and want to start again. 8. You will be told that your transaction has been successful and the processing of accounts affected will be confirm to you, so press ENTER on the "OK" button. The money will normally be in your other account by first thing in the morning. You can go back to the "My Accounts" button near the top of the page to view the changed balances on both of the relevant accounts at this stage if you like. 9. As always, you must then go back to near the top of the page and press ENTER on the "Sign Off" link. You will get a "Yes" and a "No" button to then use, the former being another way to view your changed account details and the latter being a sign off confirmation without further viewing. If you select the "Yes" button, you can elect to either "Print this (activity summary) Page in a Printer Friendly format" or "Download as a .CSV File" for viewing in a spreadsheet. After a few seconds you will be told that you can now close down your browser, as the whole process is now complete. Note 1: Initially this money transferring process may take you 10 or 15 minutes but, after you are accustomed to the site and where all the appropriate links are, you will probably achieve the desired results in five minutes or so. If your screenreader has a place marker feature, as does JAWS 5 onwards with the CONTROL SHIFT K hot key, you could set several place markers at strategic points on this site to be able to jump straight to them quickly when you next use it (see section 1 above for more details about how to do this with JAWS). Note 2: Depending on the speed of your MODEM and CPU, it can take quite a few seconds for some of the above pages to load for use. 7.4.5. Other Facilities available on the Nationwide Site When you go onto the Nationwide home page, there are over 40 links which permit you to make use of general facilities such as viewing the "Help" screens, go to the "Are You Paying the Right Amount of Tax" link, check share prices with the "FTSE100" link, use the "Branch and ATM Finder" link, and the like. After "Sign on" is achieved, as directed in 6 above, you have many personal facilities available, such as obtaining account statements, using e-mail links to send Nationwide a message, checking if you have any messages from them, viewing the current balances on all of your registered Nation wide accounts, viewing which retailers you can obtain discounts from as a Nationwide customer, and so forth. To view the balances on your accounts, go down to the heading "My Accounts" and view the information on the lines immediately below this. You can transfer cash into other peoples' accounts at other banks but you must first transfer it to your Flex Account and then use the BACS or CAPS systems to achieve the transfer or use your chequebook. Credit cards can be applied for online and you can make use of the Nationwide facility of requesting foreign currency/travellers cheques and have them delivered to your door. There are many more facilities available for you to browse through and look at in your own time. Note: Please remember that you can speed up the location of headings and links by use of the find facility of your screenreader or of Internet Explorer with the CONTROL F shortcut. You can also, if your screenreader has a place marker facility, insert markers at salient points on these pages to be able to jump straight to them instead of having to TAB through the many links on this site. ******** >SECTION 8 INTERNET CHAT 8.1. Microsoft Chat with Windows 95 and 98 There are many Internet chat programs and chat rooms (places where people meet online to discuss topics of mutual interest to them), although some are better frequented than others and easier to use with a screenreader. Large companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL, and the like, provide chat rooms of their own creation and sometimes allow individuals and groups to create their own chat rooms. 8.1.1. What is Internet Chat? To call traditional Internet chat programs "chat" is a misnomer--they would be more accurately described as Internet type-talk programs--as there is no vocalisation involved. You type a message to people on your keyboard and they respond by typing back to you. The difference between chat and e-mail programs is that with e-mail you type a message and send it without expecting a reply immediately, whereas chat occurs in real-time, which means you type a message and the person(s) you are typing to sees it almost instantly and can respond to you almost immediately and you will see the response straightaway. So you are actually conducting a keyboard conversation. However, more recently (and particularly with the advent of Windows XP) people have increasingly moved from chatting via the keyboard to chatting in real-time vocally using such as Microsoft's MSN Messenger or a program called Skype and a microphone and speakers. This voice chatting will be covered in Section 9. Indeed, the Microsoft Chat program is no longer provided with versions of Windows after Windows 98 and ME. 8.1.2. Microsoft Chat Overview There are two main types of chat sessions: private and group. What you normally do is join a group "Chat Room" in which many people are type-talking simultaneously, after which you may be invited by one of the participants to a "Private Room" where you can have a two-way conversation without you being in the "Group Room". There are chat rooms which cover every conceivable topic but be aware that one of the most common is sex. 8.1.3. What can Chat Rooms be used for? Chat rooms are useful for: 1. Public group chat rooms can be used as lecture forums for experts to give answers to general public questions. 2. Worldwide technical support by software and hardware vendors. 3. Families spread across the world can hold family chats. 4. Weekly chat sessions by international companies in a closed chat room between their managers/staff. 5. Colleges could provide learning or mentoring sessions for students via chat. Caution: Whilst group Chat sessions are obviously available for anyone to observe, be aware that even private discussions are not particularly secure because it is not too difficult for someone with the knowledge to hack into these to eavesdrop. 8.1.4. Pen-Picture of the Microsoft Chat Screen in Text Mode Generally speaking, most chat programs give their main screen area over to three distinct windows: one for displaying the textual details of what is being said in the present conversation and who is saying it; the second is an editfield where you may compose and type in your own comments to the group; and thirdly there is a window which keeps track of who is entering the chat room and leaving it during the conversation. With the Microsoft Chat program, the top line of the screen will contain the words "Microsoft Chat" with the name of the chat room you are currently in. Under this comes the standard Menu Bar with File, Edit, View, format, Room, Member, Favourites, Window and Help. Under this there is a toolbar with quick click icons. Then most of the rest of the main screen is taken up with the chat text and each time someone has participated their code name or nickname followed by "Says:" will be displayed and on the next line will be shown the text they have typed in as their next contribution to the conversation. 8.1.5. Online Chat Rooms with Microsoft Chat In Windows 95 the Microsoft Chat program is found in: Start Menu\Program Files\Accessories\Internet Tools\Microsoft Chat In Windows 98 it is found in: Start Menu\Programs\Internet Explorer\Microsoft Chat But you may wish to create a shortcut to this on your Start Menu or Desktop to obtain quick access to the chat program. The Microsoft Chat utility is not provided with Windows XP, as XP supplies a more advanced typing and voice chat utility called Windows Messenger. You can also download an even better chatting program called MSN Messenger, which will be covered in the second part of this section. 8.1.6. Using Microsoft Chat Version 2.5 with Windows 95 and 98 You may wish to jump straight in at the deep end and try the below typically busy chat site but if you find this daunting (whether before logging onto it or after logging on), just have a look through this step-by-step section, then move to the section below, entitled "Accessible Chat Specialist VIP Chat Site", and try that first, to get a feel of what chat is about. Note, however, that most standard chat sites will be more like the ones provided by Microsoft Chat than the Accessible Chat site is. 8.1.6.1. Group Chatting To chat with a group of people: 1. Launch Microsoft Chat but instead of going online immediately, press the ESCAPE key and ENTER on OK to load the program offline. You can then enter your personal details at your leisure by pressing ALT V (for View) and then O (for Options), when you will fall on the "Personal Info" property sheet. You type in details such as your name, nickname, e-mail address, etc, by TABBING through these editfields and then press ENTER on OK. You should then close the program down with ALT F4. 2. Re-run Microsoft Chat and you will now encounter a dialogue box from which to select the server you want to work with. You can ARROW up and down several server choices, e.g. "Microsoft Chat Servers", "Chat.Net", IRCnet, EFNet, etc. If you choose EFNet, you should then go to OK and press ENTER. You should now encounter your Dial-Up Network "Connect" button to press ENTER on to go online if you do not have an always online broadband connection which would mean that you are already online. 3. Besides type-talking to a group of people in these chat rooms you can include links in your messages to Web pages, e-mail addresses and send files and sounds, in addition to holding private conversations with other chat room members. If someone presses ENTER on a Web link (URL) shown on the chat screen, they are taken to that Web page to view its contents and can then return to the chat session after observing what the other chatter was referring you to. 8.1.6.2. Chatting in Private Chat Rooms If you invite someone to a private room to have a two-way conversation, you can make this invisible to those not invited or specify an access password. 8.1.6.3. Microsoft Chat Modes There are two available chat modes when using the Microsoft Chat program: text and comic chat. The latter being in pictorial form, it will not be covered here. You ensure that you are in "Text" mode by pressing ENTER on this option in the View menu. 8.1.6.4. Microsoft Chat Commands The Member Menu If you go to the "Member" menu (Press ALT M) on the Microsoft Chat Menu Bar you will find the following options if you ARROW down it: User List--Shows a list of people currently participating in the chat session. Ignore--Permits you to blank out messages from a specific user. Invite--Allows you to invite someone in the current group chat session to a private chat room. Get Profile--Permits you to view information about a given participant, e.g. e-mail address, name, etc, depending upon what they decided to make known about themselves. However, it is highly likely that most, if not all, of these personal details will be fictitious--you may be chatting to a female called Cassandra who turns out to be a male called Rodney! 8.1.6.5. Practical Example of Joining a Chat Session with Microsoft Chat Follow the below steps as an example of what is involved but remember that in recent years chat rooms have become less supported by ISPs and other providers and so are reducing in availability all of the time. In fact, since October 2004, even Microsoft has closed its own chat rooms, so two of the chat room options in the below list no longer exist and even more may disappear shortly. 1. Run Microsoft Chat and ARROW down to the "EFNet" chat room, then TAB once and ARROW down to "Show all available Chat Rooms" and then TAB to "Connect" and press ENTER to go online. 2. You will come online in Microsoft chat, Room 1, in the "Input" window. You may now encounter a splash screen with statistics on it about how many rooms they have and how many people are currently online, etc, so TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to close this, after reading some of its contents for an idea of what is available and who is providing the current set of chat rooms and topics. 3. If you want to find a chat room with a topic which suits you, press ALT R and ARROW down the Room menu to "Room List" and press ENTER, unless you are already in the below dialogue box. 4. After a short delay, a dialogue box will appear and you will be asked "Display Chat Rooms that Contain", so type in a topic you are interested in, e.g. "golf". Then TAB to "Update List" and press ENTER. 5. After a short wait whilst a search is done on the EFNet system for chat rooms covering your requested topic (if there are any), TAB past several more options to a list of member golf-related chat rooms. This list may be empty if there is no chat room covering this topic, or it could have just one or many entries. 6. You can now TAB to "List Members" and press ENTER on this. A list of current participants in this chat room will be shown (if anyone is participating when you try this, of course). 7. You can now come out of this dialogue box by pressing the ESCAPE key to go back to the first dialogue box. TAB forward through the various options here to get a feel for what is there. Then go to the "Join Room" button and press ENTER. 8. You will now have joined the discussion about golf in a chat room (You are likely to have to use your screenreader's mouse mode to view information about the chat room you are in. The end of this information will say something like "Four Members", indicating how many people are currently enjoined in golf-related chat. If you continue to use your TAB key you will move past the "Input" window, "Output" window and then the "Users" window where the current participant chatters will be listed, including yourself. 10. Ensure that you are in text-only mode by pressing ALT V (for view) and ARROWING down to "Plain Text" and pressing ENTER. 11. TAB to the "Input" window editfield and type your message in and press ENTER or CONTROL Y. Perhaps just ask for a feedback response from someone initially to be sure things are working OK. 12. If, for instance, you have used "Buck Rogers" as your nickname when setting things up initially, your message will almost immediately be shown on screen for everyone to view, including yourself. For example, if you typed: "Hello, I'm Buck. Will someone reply to confirm that my message is being received, as I am a newcomer to chat rooms" and then press ENTER. 13. The words "Buck Rogers Says" will be displayed on screen and your word-for-word message will follow it on the next line. 14. Hopefully, within a few seconds or perhaps a minute, you will receive a reply from one of the other chat room participants, which your screenreader should automatically red out to you. If it does not, you should TAB to the Output message window and ARROW down the screen to read it. You can, in the Output typing window, either thank them for replying and then press ALT F, X, to shut down MS Chat or continue with the conversation if you wish by typing more into the input window. Note 1: whilst some screenreaders I have used perform acceptably in this type of chat program, others have proved unusable. Note 2: If you are more interested in having a one-to-one chat with someone you already know in a program which works more consistently and reliably with screenreaders, the next sub- section in respect of MSN Messenger will probably be preferable to you. 8.1.6.6. Microsoft Chat Shortcut Keystrokes Microsoft chat has a good range of shortcut keystrokes for use in different windows and at different stages. General Press F1: To bring up the help topics file from anywhere. Press TAB: To move the focus through the various windows/panes. In the Input Window or Pane Press CONTROL Y: To send the contents of the Compose or input window. Press CONTROL T: To send the contents of the input Pane as a thought. Press CONTROL W: to send the contents of the input window as a whisper. Press CONTROL H: To play a sound. Press CONTROL B: To make a selection bold. Press CONTROL I: To make a selection italic. Press CONTROL U: To have a selection underlined. Press CONTROL K: To give a selection a colour. Press CONTROL F: To format a selection in a fixed pitch font. The standard cut, copy, paste, etc, shortcuts are also available. So are the normal methods of selecting/highlighting prior to underlining, emboldening, etc, with the above shortcuts. In the Output Window or Pane Press CONTROL N: To open a new connection after disconnecting from another. Press CONTROL O: To open a file. Press CONTROL P: To print a file. Press CONTROL Q: To open the options property sheets. Press CONTROL L: To open the chat automation dialogue box. In the Microsoft Chat Interface Press CONTROL f6: To switch between active rooms and the Status Pane if it is open. Press the ARROW KEYS: To move the black dot around the emotion wheel. Press HOME: To return the black dot to the centre of the emotion wheel. Press CONTROL S: To save a file. 8.2. Chatting with MSN Messenger 6.2 Windows XP does not come with the Microsoft Chat utility dealt with in the last sub-section. Instead it comes with a program called Windows Messenger. However, you will get a more feature- rich chat client if you download and use MSN Messenger instead of using Windows Messenger, which you can then use on Windows 98(SE) and most other operating systems through to Microsoft XP. I will therefore describe how to use MSN Messenger as the most up-to-date instant chatting program in this section instead of Windows Messenger. This is because it is a more advanced means of using chat and other facilities than is Microsoft Chat or Windows Messenger and most of the screenreader makers have included some of their own hot keys and automatic readout script, map and set files to make its use easier. However, note that, since MSN Messenger 6.2 is a very recent version of this software, it will work better with more up-to-date versions of screenreaders on a Windows XP operating system. You will just have to experiment to see if your combination of screenreader version and OS work together with MSN Messenger adequately well. To use MSN Messenger's features, such as e-mailing, type chatting, voice chatting, etc, you yourself must already be online on the Internet. This is also true of when you want to access the majority of the options in the Main menu, such as in the Contacts menu, the Actions menu, etc, as they generally remain disabled whilst not online and signed into the Net Passport site. Similarly, of course, the person you want to type chat to will also have to be online at the time you are trying to instantly chat with them, otherwise they will not be available to take the message and reply to it. So both of you must be online with MSN Messenger either running in the foreground or in the background from the System Tray. Realistically, therefore, whilst you can still use MSN messenger and other instant messaging programs with a pay-as-you-go Internet connection, this type of software will be much more effective if you have an Internet connection which is always on, such as a monthly payment package with your 56K modem or a broadband connection. Please note that the option to go to "Chat Rooms" in the MSN Messenger File menu and chat in the way described in the last sub-section is no longer available because Microsoft have closed down their online typing chat rooms. It must also be said that MSN Messenger works best if you have an up-to-date screenreader such as HAL 6.5, Window-Eyes 5 or JAWS 5.1 or later. Messenger also works best if you are running it on a Windows XP system rather than on a Windows 98 operating system, although you can still use it with Windows 98. All three of these up-to-date screenreaders on a Windows XP system will both echo your typed message when you send it and also automatically speak out any replies you receive. They will also tell you, on the Status Line, what the person you are having a conversation with is doing, e.g. if they are currently typing, if they have just gone to lunch (very rude in the middle of a conversation!), and so forth. 8.2.1. What Can You Use MSN Messenger For? With MSN Messenger you can: 1. Talk to one or several people using voice chat, where you will need a sound card in your PC, one or more speakers attached to it and either a microphone or mic/headset. 2. Transfer computer files to people you are chatting with and provide them with links to such as referred to e-mail addresses and Websites. 3. Hold social club meetings with members not in the same town to organise future events. 4. Briefing of groups of home workers from a small central office, i.e. a kind of telecommuting. 5. See the list of other uses supplied in the last sub-section entitled "What can Chat Rooms be used for?". 8.2.2. Signing on to the .Net Passport Service You have to register with the Microsoft .Net Passport service before you can use MSN Messenger. This is because MSN Messenger has to sign on to this Passport site and use its information and connectivity network before it can work. It is possible to register/sign on with the Net Passport just before you download the MSN program or you can download it first and then sign on with Net Passport later. However, if you already have signed on with Net Passport for some other reason or have set up an Hotmail account for yourself, then you are already signed on and do not have to do this again, as you can use your same username, password, etc. To sign on with Passport first and then get the download immediately: 1. Surf to either: www.msn.co.uk (for UK residents) or www.msn.com (for Us residents) 2. you should move well down the home page, which has over 180 links, to the "MSN Messenger 6.2" link and press ENTER or SPACEBAR. You will get there quicker if you use your screenreader's find feature or page down twice and then start to ARROW down from there. 3. On the next page you should TAB around 13 times to a "Download" link and press ENTER. 4. On the next page, if you already have an Hotmail account or a MSN.com e-mail address, you are already registered and do not need to do it again. For new users you should ARROW down to the second "Go" button where it says "Register your own E-mail Address" just below it and press ENTER on this "Go" button. A standard secure server message will come up and you just press ENTER on the "OK" button. 5. Now the registration page with editfields to complete loads in. In normal live mode you should ARROW down this page to get an idea of what personal details you have to supply, because not all of the editfield labels are likely to be spoken by your screenreader after you go into forms/editing mode. Then: A. TAB to the first editfield and go into forms mode and type in here your e-mail address, e.g. john-willaims27@onetel.com. Depending on the screenreader you are using and its version, you go into forms/editing mode by pressing the ENTER key (with JAWS and Window-Eyes) or by pressing SPACEBAR (with HAL 4 and 5) or by pressing CAPSLOCK ENTER (with HAL 6.03 and later). B. TAB once to the password field and make a password up you will be able to remember of at least six characters. C. TAB once again and retype this same password in here to confirm. D. Another press of TAB takes you to a combobox where you can ARROW down a list of days to select your day of birth, so ARROW down to this. E. TAB again and ARROW down the next list to your month of birth. F. TAB once again to another editfield which is where you type in your year of birth in full, e.g. 1977. G. When you TAB again, this is where things can get a little difficult. You are required to see and type into an editfield a number of digits and letters but these letters are deliberately made blurred on screen. If you cannot see them, there is an alternative way to deal with this by getting them spoken out to you through your computer speakers. You press ENTER on a link which invites you to do this if you cannot see the digits and figures, so do this. Next: i. Now another dialogue or window opens up and in here you TAB to "Listen to the Characters in the Audio file" and press ENTER on this. In Windows 98 this audio file would be opened and spoken to you straightaway but in Windows XP you will encounter another dialogue box first to TAB to "Open" and press enter on this first. ii. What happens now is that your default audio player, such as Windows Media Player or Winamp, will open and you will hear the letters and numbers spoken but not in a very clear voice. If you mis-hear this and type it in wrongly, you will be given another chance but with a different set of numbers and figures which, hopefully, will be easier to decipher than the last ones! You may be advised to have a tape recorder to hand to record this spoken string of letters and numbers. iii. You should now close your computer's audio player with ALT F4 to return to the dialogue box you were just in and then TAB once to an editfield where you have to type these spoken figures and letters in. iv. Then TAB to "Continue" and press ENTER to leave this pop-up window and return to your first dialogue box. H. The text you typed in above will now have automatically been inserted into the appropriate editfield in this first dialogue and you should now TAB to a field just above the "I Agree" button and in here you again type your e-mail address in for confirmation. I. Lastly, TAB to and press ENTER on the "I Agree" button. 6. The form completion is now over and MSN Messenger 6.2 should now automatically be downloading to your PC for you and it may also automatically open and install itself. If it does not start to download automatically, see the next sub-section for how to start the download. 7. Shortly after registration and download, you will get a confirmation message on screen if all is OK. You will before long also receive an e-mail from Microsoft confirming your registration and your submitted details and providing some advice and guidance on using the Net Passport service in future if you want to. You will be invited to use a URL in this message to go online and confirm your Net Passport registration, where you just complete your registration details again and then receive a successful message. However, it is not essential to reply to this e-mail to remain registered and be able to use MSN Messenger. Note 1: There is an alternative way of approaching this registration and download sequence. If you like, you can, in step 4 above, TAB to the third "Go" button, press ENTER and download MSN Messenger without signing on to the Net Passport at this stage but, after installing it, you will not be able to use it without later signing on to the Passport after installing it. You could sign on to the Net Passport later as outlined above or you could go to the: www.passport.com site and sign on there instead, it all has the same effect. You can, in fact, sign on with .Net Passport in many ways and on many different sites. Note 2: This necessary .Net Passport registration can be simply left and nothing else done with it (other than MSN Messenger signing in with it when you want to use it) if you like or you could now, in certain circumstances, use your Passport to verify your identity and personal details when shopping on the Internet, so it could be of convenient use to you in other ways in future. Initially, Microsoft had intended the Passport service to be a single online storage place for Internet users' sensitive data but now they have scaled it back to support only services from Microsoft and its own close partners. Another example of how Net Passport can be used is if you are a MS Outlook user you can publish your Outlook Calendar on the Net Passport site for people with permission to view and they can publish theirs for you to view. 8.2.3. Downloading MSN Messenger After registering with Net Passport (or before if you elected to press ENTER on the third "Go" button and download the program first, see the last sub-section) what will happen is: 1. A new page will load in and you may already be downloading and installing the software, but if it is not automatically downloading now, you TAB to the "Click here to Download Manually" button and press ENTER to start the download. It will take about 30 minutes with a 56K modem. 2. You will receive the usual download type and filename dialogue box and should choose "Save to Disk" before TABBING to and pressing ENTER on the "Save" button. 3. The program which downloads is about 6.5 Mb in size and will be called something like "setup9x.exe". You should go to this file and press ENTRE on it to start the installation. Note: You can also download MSN 6.2 via the "Downloads" link on the Whitestick site at: www.whitestick.co.uk 8.2.4. Installing Messenger To install MSN Messenger: 1. Go to the above downloaded .exe file and press ENTER on it. 2. You then TAB to a "Next" button and press ENTER. 3. To agree to the terms of use, ARROW down to the "I Agree" button and then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. Now the MSN features for Microsoft Explorer page loads in. You can make your own decisions on this. I would suggest that you leave the MSN Toolbar checked on and turn of the other two options by pressing SPACEBAR on them, unless you do want MSN to be your default search engine and your default home page. Then press ENTER on "Next". 5. The installation wizard will now take a few minutes to install the program and you should then press ENTER ON "Finish". 6. After this installation you must press ENTER on the "Sign In" button which you should now be on. Otherwise, sign in by going to the "MSN" icon at the bottom of the screen in mouse mode and pressing ENTER or double left clicking on it, or you can also achieve this via the File menu with ALT F (for File) and then by ARROWING to and pressing ENTER on the "Sign In" option. You then type your e-mail address in the "Sign in Name" field and your password in the second editfield to match the details which you used when registering with the Net Passport service. 7. You will also TAB to a "Remember my Name and Password on this Computer" checkbox and if you press SPACEBAR to check this on, you will not have to remember and enter your e-mail name and password in future but, of course, this is less secure than you leaving this unchecked and being prepared to enter these details when requested--it is your decision. The File menu will then contain an option for you to sign in with your e-mail address as wellas the "Sign In" item. 8. Now TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. 9. You will now automatically be taken online to the Net Passport site to confirm your passport details and complete the procedure. This will only work if you have previously registered with the .Net Passport service because if you have not yet registered it will not know you. MSN Messenger will install itself at: C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger 6.2 (or whichever other sub-version of Version 6 you end up with) Note: If you did not register with the Net Passport services earlier, you can TAB to and use the "Don't have a Passport, get one Here" button and press ENTER on it before going to the "OK" button in step 8 above. 8.2.5. Launching Messenger If you do not make the Windows start up launching configuration change suggested in the next sub-section, MSN messenger will automatically start every time Windows starts. If you then shut it down, it will close but leave an icon in your System Tray from which to again open it and by which it can continue to run in the background and monitor any incoming e-mail or messages which may be sent to you and alert you to these. It can also alert you to any of your contacts simply coming online as well. In this case, you can launch Messenger again by either: 1. Via the Program Files option in the Start Menu in the normal way. Press: Windows key, then P (for programs), then M (for MSN Messenger" several times until you get to it and then press ENTER to launch it. or 2. From its System Tray icon by going there with INSERT S or Windows key B with Window-Eyes, left SHIFT Numpad / with HAL or INSERT F11 with JAWS and then ARROW to it. You then press the TAB key once or twice to the single right click button and press ENTER. In the Context Menu which opens up, you can ARROW to "Open MSN Messenger". Note that you can also achieve several other commands from this menu, such as signing in, checking your e-mail (if you have set up a Hotmail e-mail account with Microsoft), etc. If you do make the launching change suggested in the next sub- section, in future you will have to start Messenger manually by either of: 1. Via the Program Files option in the Start Menu in the normal way. Press: Windows key, then P (for programs), then M (for MSN Messenger" several times until you get to it and then press ENTER to launch it. or 2. Press Windows key M or D and then press M until MSN Messenger is spoken, then press ENTER on your Desktop shortcut icon for Messenger. You create the above Desktop Icon by again going to "MSN Messenger 6.2" as above (in method 1) via Program Files\MSN Messenger but instead of pressing ENTER to launch it, you press SHIFT F10 to open a menu and then ARROW down to "Send To" and press ENTER. Then ARROW down to "Desktop, Create Shortcut" and press ENTER twice TO FINISH. Note: You can also create shortcuts in the above way for any other file, folder or disk drive on your computer and to Web pages. 8.2.6. Configuring Messenger for Optimal Use with a Screenreader You can have MSN Messenger launched automatically when Windows starts or run it afterwards, depending on your preferences. By default, Messenger will launch every time you start Windows but if you want to change this so that it only launches when you want it to, what you do is outlined below, plus a couple of other tips. 8.2.6.1. Stopping Messenger from Automatically Launching and Obtaining a Simple View of the Screen To stop Messenger from automatically Launching itself every time you start Windows and trying to take you onto the Internet to the Passport server, so that it will only run when you want it to: 1. After Messenger starts up it may try to take you online to the Net. Just press the ESCAPE key a few times to stop this. 2. Now with Messenger running, press ALT T (for Tools) and then O (for Options). 3. Then CONTROL TAB several times to the "General" property sheet. 4. In the General sheet, TAB to "Automatically Run Messenger when I Log onto Windows" and press SPACEBAR to turn this off. 5. Then TAB a couple more times to "Display MSN Today when Messenger Signs In" and check this off as well. 6. Then SHIFT TAB to the "OK" button and press ENTER. Note: The above dialogue box has seven property sheets in it. You can CONTROL TAB through them all and TAB down their options and observe how Messenger is set up to work. You can change any of these set-up settings to suit your personal preferences. 8.2.6.2. Making Changes in Messenger Tools Options and Enabling your Virus Scanner There are a few more options configuration changes which you may wish to make but, of coarse, these will depend on how much you can see on the screen and on your screenreader's and your own preferences. Consider the below for starters: 1. Go back into Tools, Options by pressing ALT T and then O. 2. You should be in the "Personal" property sheet, so if you have no display picture and you cannot make use of others' pictures, you may want to check these two options off with the SPACEBAR. Note that there are other options near the top of this Personal sheet which will be disabled and not seen by your screenreader unless you are currently online, such as "My Display Name", so go to this sheet when you first go online and type into this editfield what you would want to be known as when passing messages from yourself to others, e.g. "John Wilson" or "Chess Master!", etc. This will then hold for future sessions. 2. Then CONTROL TAB to the "Messages" sheet and in here TAB to "Change Font" and press ENTER on this if you can see enough to read the messages on screen with a larger and different font. In the main multi-sheet dialogue box, TAB on and note where any files you receive from others together with your messages will be save to for you to view later, which will be: C:\My Documents\My Received Files and if you have no My Documents folder or want to designate a different folder, after making this folder, press ENTER on the "Change" button and then tell Messenger where to save them instead. Now (and this is of particular importance), if you have a virus-checker and want to enable it to scan any files you download when using Messenger, TAB on to "Scan Files for Viruses Using" and press SPACEBAR to turn this on and then TAB once again and if you know the precise path to the executable file of your virus scanning program, type this in here, e.g. with the free version of AVG 7 it would be: C:\Program Files\Grisoft\AVG Free\avg.exe If you do not know the precise path to your virus scanner, TAB once more to the "Browse" button and press ENTER on this to navigate through the folders to the appropriate .exe file to select it in this way. 3. Now CONTROL TAB to the "Privacy" sheet and in here TAB to and if you do not want the trouble of always having to provide your password, check the first of these options off with the SPACEBAR. 4. Next CONTROL TAB to the "General" sheet and note that most things in here are checked on by default and you will probably want to leave them that way so that you will be alerted to people sending you e-mail, sending you a typed instant message, etc, and so that you can automatically be signed onto Net Passport whenever you are online without having to do so manually. 5. Now just CONTROL TAB through the rest of the seven property sheets in here and TAB through them to see if any other changes would suit you and make them. 6. Finally, TAB to one of the "OK" buttons and press ENTER to finish and save your changes. Note: If you are using JAWS 6.10 and incoming messages are not being spoken to you automatically, you may have to amend the pixels per tab from 10 to 80, in the "Advanced Options" of the JAWS MSN JCF file. 8.2.7. Pen-Picture of the Messenger Screen/Windows MSN Messenger 6.2 in chat mode works through two main interfaces or windows. Near the top of the screen it has a standard Main Menu Bar with such as File, Contacts, Actions, etc, menus on it, which you can access by pressing the ALT key and ARRoWING right or left through these and then ARROWING down the options, most of which will be disabled unless you are currently online and signed in with Net Passport. It also has a Status Line which provides much useful information about what is happening at the present moment whilst online, e.g. letting you know if someone is currently typing to you, when you last received a message, etc. The Titlebar also provides some useful information of this type when someone is typing to you. The two main windows are: 1. A window on the right of the screen (the main MSN interface) with a list of your contacts in it to ARROW down, showing which contacts are currently on line and available for chatting to and which ones are offline altogether or shown as at lunch, etc. You are automatically in this right-hand window when you launch Messenger. 2. A typing window near the left top of the screen which provides an editfield to type your short message into. You just type into it in the same way as any other editing window, like Notepad, MS Word, etc. You are automatically taken to this window/editfield when you start a chat session yourself. This same editing field also acts as a message history Window which shows the thread of conversation which has already passed between you and your single or multiple contact(s). In its default size (it can be maximised) it holds about 10 lines of text five or six inches wide and scrolls off of the top as it becomes full. During a chat session, for example, it would contain such as: "John Wilson says: Hello, Jim, how are you today)" and, under this, Jim's reply, such as: "Jim says: I'm fine, John, how did you go on last night at the chess club?" and my reply might have been recorded below the above as: "John Wilson says: I won two games and lost one, so things are improving over last week!" So, in this way, by ALT TABBING to this editfield and then ARROWING down these messages you can see the natural flow of the typed conversation if you need to review what was said. On the other hand, of course, since you are in the conversation, you will probably only need to check your contact's last message to keep track of things, unless you are having a three or four way conversation, when things may become a little more confusing without regularly reviewing the screen in this window or using your screenreader's read out last message, read out second to last message, etc, hot key, if it has them (see the JAWS hot keys for this at the end of this sub-section). If you have a reasonably up-to-date screenreader, e.g. JAWS 5.1 and higher, HAL 6.5 or Window-Eyes 5 on a Windows XP system, you will automatically have the message someone sends to you read out to you by the screenreader as soon as you receive it without you having to keep going to the above editing and message history window. Whilst composing a message Some screenreaders, e.g. JAWS, automatically make the typing/editing window full screen when you use Messenger with them. JAWS also has a CONTROL SHIFT H hot key to take you directly to the typing window. If you are using HAL, you can jump to the typing editbox by pressing CONTROL SHIFT HOME when in the left-hand window. You move between the two Messenger windows by pressing the ALT TAB key combination. When in the left side of the screen, you move between several action buttons and the editing/message history window by pressing the TAB or SHIFT TAB keys. As well as using the Context Menus and Main menu bar to effect commands, you can press SPACEBAR on any of these action buttons to achieve some of the same things, e.g. send an instant message, add a contact, and so forth. Note: When you have MSN Messenger running (either full screen or in the background from the System Tray), Some screenreaders will also automatically alert you to the fact that one of your contacts has just come online and signed onto Messenger as available to be communicated with. You will then know that you can stop whatever you are doing in another application, close that other application and locate this contact in your contacts list to send him a message, if you like. 8.2.8. How to Chat to One or More People with Messenger You can start an instant chat session without adding someone to your Contacts List or you can create a Contacts List and add people to this list to be able to initiate a type chat with them from the list. 8.2.8.1. Initiating a Chat without Using the Contacts List If you know someone who uses MSN Messenger and you know the e- mail address which they use as their sign in name and you want to have a chat with them, you can attempt to initiate a chat session with them by: 1. With Messenger running, go online and sign in if you are not already in this mode, otherwise this will not work. Ensure that all other programs other than your screenreader are closed when you use Messenger so that you can move from window to window without anything else interfering. 2. Press ALT A (for Actions) and then ENTER on "Send an Instant Message". 3. A dialogue box with two property sheets will open up and you should CONTROL TAB to the "Other" sheet if you are not already on it. 4. In the "Other" sheet you can type into an editfield the e-mail address sign in name of the person you want to commence a type chat with, e.g. john.wilson1255@hotmail.com, jimsmith901@onetel.com, etc. 5. Now press ENTER to open up the Messenger typing editing window to start typing your short chat message in and then press ENTER again to send it. 6. If the person you are starting up a chat with is online, which you will not know if you send a message in this way, he/she will receive your message in a second or two and be alerted to the fact that you have sent this message. If they are not online and signed in or if they do not use the e-mail address you have provided as their sign in name, then you will be advised of this on screen and will be able to go no further. 7. If the recipient is online with Messenger running in the foreground and receives your message, it should be announced and read to them. If they have Messenger runnning in the background and iconised in their System Tray, they will be alerted to the fact that a message has been received and they can open the Sys Tray up and open messenger full screen to receive the message and interact with the program full screen. If their screenreader does not automatically read the message out, they can use the ARROW keys in the message history window to read the message. If they are using JAWS 5.1, HAL 6.5 or Window-Eyes 5 or higher as their screenreader and Windows XP (but this may not always work correctly with Windows 98), these messages should be read out automatically by JAWS without having to ALT TAB to the message history window or use any hot key to get there. 8. After automatically hearing the message or reading it with the ARROW keys, the recipient can then make a reply to it by typing in the typing/editing field (where they should already be) their next message and pressing ENTER to send it. The flow of typed message conversation would be recorded in the message history window something like: "John Wilson says: Hello, Jim, how are you today)" and, under this, Jim's reply, such as: "Jim says: I'm fine, John, how did you go on last night at the chess club?" and my reply might have been recorded below the above as: "John Wilson says: I won two games and lost one, so things are improving over last week!" So, in this way, by ARROWING down these messages in the contacts window you can see the flow of the typed conversation if you need to review what was said. On the other hand, of course, since you are in the conversation yourself, you will probably only need to check the person you are chatting with's last message to keep track of things, unless you are having a three or four way conversation, when things may become a little more confusing without regularly reviewing the screen in this window or using your screenreader's read out last message, read out second to last message, etc, hot key, if it has them, e.g. ALT 1, ALT 2, SHIFT `, etc, with JAWS. You move between the three typing, contacts and message history windows by pressing the ALT TAB keys. 9. At any time you can consult the Status Line to get some feedback as to what is happening, such as if the person you are chatting to is currently in the process of typing to you and what their display name is, or to be advised if you have just received a message from them and should now SHIFT TAB to the message history window to read what it is if it has not been read out to you automatically. 10. When you have finished chatting, you should press ALT F (for File) and then ENTER on "Sign Out", after which you may then encounter a message asking you if you want to also disconnect from the Internet or stay online. Note: You can also initiate the sending of a message in this way by going to the System Tray, pressing ENTER on "MSN Messenger . . ." and then ARROWING to and pressing ENTER on "Send an Instant Message".If you examine the other commands in this Context Menu, you will see that you can effect several other useful commands from here as well, e.g. signing in, signing out, Opening Messenger, and you can even go to your e-mail inbox on the Hotmail server if you have an Hotmail e-mail account and read your mail online. 8.2.8.2. Adding People to Your Contacts List As you already know, users of MSN Messenger submit their e-mail address as their MSN name and sign in name with Net Passport. You can therefore, if you know someone's e-mail address who is also a Messenger user and signed in with that e-mail address, add them to your Contacts List manually by: 1. With Messenger running, go online first and sign in, otherwise this will not work. 2. Press ALT C (for Contacts) and then ENTER on "Add a contact". 3. Then press ENTER on the "Next" button and, in the dialogue which opens up, you can type into an editfield the username/sign in name of the person you wish to add to your Contacts List, i.e. their e-mail address. 4. TAB to the "Finish" button and press ENTER to save this person to the list. Do this for each person you want to have as part of your close contacts or friends list to regularly chat with. Note that, if you are trying to add someone to your Contacts List who is not signed in to the MSN service, you will encounter a couple of on-screen messages and other "Next" buttons before you get to the "Finish" button (see Note 1 directly below for more about this. Note 1: If any person you put into your Contacts List is not currently signed in as a MSN Messenger user, before pressing ENTER on the "Finish" button above, you can TAB to a "Send E- Mail) button to have the MSN service send him/her an e-mail to tell them about MSN Messenger, where to get it and how to install it. You can add some text of your own to this message for the recipient to realise that it is you generating this message for them. Just because you know someone's e-mail address does not mean that you can simply add them to your Contacts List. They have to be signed in to the MSN Messenger network with a Net Passport account with that same e-mail address for you to be able to add them to your list. Note 2: If you want to delete someone from your Contacts List, you can do this via the "Manage Contacts" option within the Contacts menu. 8.2.8.3. Initiating a Chat from Your Contacts List You can start a chat from your Contacts List with one or more people. What you do is: 1. Ensure that you are online and signed in, otherwise this will not work. Ensure that all other programs other than your screenreader are closed when you use Messenger so that you can move from window to window without anything else interfering. 2. Either: A. Press ALT TAB to the Contacts List in the contacts window if you are not already there. or B. Press ALT A (for Actions) and then ENTER on "Send an Instant Message", When a dialogue box will open up and you should be in the "My Contacts" sheet. or C. Go to the System Tray and ARROW to "MSN Messenger . . ." and press ENTER. Then ARROW to "Send an Instant Message" and press ENTER. (This latter method will only be available if you have already launched Messenger and still have it running in the foreground or you have closed it so that it still runs in the background from the System Tray.) 4. In the contacts window or the My Contacts dialogue box you will find a list of contacts (provided that you have entered some as outlined in the last sub-section) to ARROW to one and press ENTER to commence the chatting session. Each person's display name will be in a vertical list of "Online" or "Offline" contacts, which you can ARROW down so that you know who is available to receive your message. Note that if you want to initiate a chat with more than one of the people in your Contacts List, you can do this if you select/highlight the appropriate people in the usual way in the second list before pressing ENTER. As an alternative to simply pressing ENTER at this stage, note that you can also press SHIFT F10 on the contact's name to open a Context Menu and ARROW to a number of other commands to perform on this contact, such as sending them an e-mail and starting a voice message session. 5. You will now be in the chat typing/editing window to type your short message in and then press ENTER to send it. 6. If the person you are starting up a chat session with is online, which you will know as this will have been indicated in the above Contacts List, he/she will receive your message in a second or two and be alerted to the fact that you have sent this message. They will know this because the MSN Messenger entry in their System Tray flashes, which their screenreader should advise them of. 7. The recipient can then open up Messenger in whichever way they prefer, e.g. via the System Tray, and then, if necessary (that is, if their screenreader does not automatically read this message out to them), ALT TAB to the editing/message history window and use their screenreader's ARROW keys to read the message. 8. After reading the message, the recipient can then make a reply to it by immediately typing their next message contribution to the discussion and then by pressing ENTER to send it. 9. At any time you can consult the Status Line with your screenreader's read Status Line hot key to get some feedback as to what is happening, such as if the person you are chatting to is currently in the process of typing to you and what their display name is, etc. 10. When you have finished chatting, you should press ALT F (for File) and then ENTER on "Sign Out", after which you may then encounter a message asking you if you want to also disconnect from the Internet or stay online. Note 1: MSN Messenger can, of course, be used as a spoken telephony program just like the telephony program called Skype (see Section 9). However, since this current section is to do with chatting (i.e. type-talking), this aspect of MSN Messenger is not covered here. Try using Skype for speech telephony, as it is a little clearer and more responsive in speech mode than is MSN Messenger and, if you want to try speech communication in MSN Messenger, transfer many of the principles and concepts discussed in the Skype section to MSN Messenger and do some experimenting of your own. You initiate a voice call with MSN Messenger via "Start an Audio Conversation" from the Actions menu. Note 2: You can also send a text or picture file to a contact if you like. Do this via the "Send a File or Photo" option in the Actions menu. 8.2.9. Being notified that One of Your Contacts has come online and/or sent you a message If you are online and have MSN Messenger running either full screen or closed down and running in the System Tray, your screenreader should automatically let you know when one of your contacts comes online and is therefore available for you to chat with. He/she will then appear in your Contacts List as online instead of offline as previously. What happens is that the Messenger icon in your System Tray flashes and this should be picked up by your screenreader and announced to you. However, not all screenreaders do automatically alert you to someone combing online, so you may have to check the contacts online and offline status lists from time to time. If you are online and running Messenger and someone sends you a message, your screenreader should automatically tell you that a given person has just sent you a message and should echo that message to you. You can then make a reply if you like. If you need to review what this person has typed to you, you can ALT TAB to the message history window and ARROW through the message or use your screenreader's special MSN Messenger hot keys (if it has any) to get the last message re-read to you. If you are online with MSN Messenger but now decide you want to be unavailable to take messages for a while, you can go to the System Tray, activate the MSN Messenger item and select to be shown to others in their contacts list as such as at lunch, not available, etc. 8.2.10. E-Mailing with MSN Messenger You can both send and receive e-mail via Messenger. What happens is that Messenger opens your default e-mailing program and uses that to achieve this. 8.2.10.1. Sending Someone an E-Mail If you want to send someone an e-mail via MSN Messenger you can do this by: 1. ALT TAB to the Contacts List window if you are not already there. 2. ARROW to the name of the contact you wish to e-mail. 3. Press SHIFT F10 to open a list of commands to carry out on that contact. 4. ARROW to "Send an E-mail" and press ENTER. 5. What happens now is that your e-mail program, such as Outlook Express, MS Outlook, Eudora, etc, will open up and the "To" field will be completed with this contact's e-mail address. 6. You now just complete the rest of the e-mail headers and body as usual and send the e-mail message in the usual way, e.g. by pressing ALT S in Outlook Express. Note: You can also send e-mail via the "Send E-Mail" option in the Actions menu. 8.2.10.2. Downloading Your E-Mail To go to your e-mail mailbox and download your mail into your e- mail client's Inbox: 1. You should be online with Messenger running, in the main right-hand Messenger window. 2. In the main Messenger interface window with your Contacts List you will find at the top of the window, above the Contacts List, there is a "Download E-Mail" button which you can ARROW to and press ENTER on. 3. Your default e-mail program will launch, e.g. Outlook Express, Eudora, etc, and commence downloading your e-mail into your Inbox as usual. 4. You can now read your mail in your e-mail program. 8.2.11. MSN Messenger General Shortcut Keystrokes and Specialist Screenreader Hot Keys MSN Messenger obeys several standard Windows basic keystrokes and your screenreader may have several hot keys specifically for use with MSN Messenger. 8.2.11.1. Windows Shortcuts You would use several general Windows keystrokes to move about and view messages in MSN Messenger. For example: Press ALT TAB: To move through the two main Messenger windows. Press TAB: To move forwards through action buttons and editfields in the left-hand editing and message history window. SHIFT TAB moves you backwards. Press up or down ARROWS: to read through messages in the message history window. Press: your standard querty keys in the message typing/editing composition window to create your message. Press ENTER: To send a message after typing it. Press SHIFT F10: To open a Context Menu on a contact's name in the Contact's List to then select a variety of commands to carry out in respect of that contact. 8.2.11.2. JAWS 4.5 to 6.0 Screenreader Hot Keys for Messenger JAWS automatically maximises the main Messenger interface window on the right-hand side for you when you run Messenger and in this state JAWS is then able to inform you of when a new Hotmail e- mail message is received or of when a contact in your Contacts List has signed on. As long as you are online with Messenger running full screen or closed but in your System tray, Jaws will make these announcements to you automatically, even if you are working in a different application, such as MS Word. When you are working in another window, JAWS will play a sound to alert you that someone has sent you an instant message, so you should press ALT TAB to switch to this message and get the most recent message read out to you if Messenger is already open or open it from the System Tray first. You may find that things work better if you also shut down any other program you may have been working in before you received your message. JAWS from Version 4.5 has an impressive range of hot keys for use with MSN Messenger 5X and 6X, as follows: If an incoming message has an emoticon (smiley) in it, JAWS will advise you of it and of its type. General Press INSERT Numpad 3: To hear the contents of the Status Line, where much activity taking place when using Messenger can be monitored. Press INSERT F11: To get to the System Tray to be able to open an MSN Messenger Context Menu to launch Messenger and perform several other commands on it. Message Reading Hot Keys Press ALT 1: To get the most recent message you received read out to you. With JAWS 6, repeatedly pressing ALT 1 will read increasingly older messages to you. Press ALT 2: To read the second most recent message. Press ALT 3: To read the third most recent message. Press ALT 4: To read the fourth most recent message. Press ALT 5: To read the fifth most recent message. Press ALT 6 to 10: To hear the fifth to tenth most recent message if you have JAWS 6. Press shift `: To check for a status message, read this status message and the last message in the conversation. Press alt shift v: To get incoming messages spoken or turn this off; it is on by default. Press CONTROL SHIFT V: To toggle the speaking of the contact's name on and off; it is on by default, so that the contact's name is reported before the message is read out. Press CONTROL SHIFT M: to insert an emoticon at the cursor point into your message. You get a list of these to ARROW down and press ENTER on the one you want. Press CONTROL SHIFT H: To switch to the message history and editing window with JAWS 6. Typing Sound and Announcement Hot Keys Press CONTROL SHIFT F12: To toggle typing sound on and off; it is on by default. Press ALT CONTROL F12: To toggle typing announce on or off; it is on by default. Press F12: To check the typing status. If typing announcement and the typing sound are disabled, this hot key generates a single click if the contact is typing. Conversation Hot Keys Press CONTROL WINDOWS key 1 TO 5: To assign a conversation to a given channel from channel one to channel five, so that you can then easily switch to that conversation channel from any other window, including windows in other applications. These channels hold given conversations so that you can have several conversations going on at once, should you be able to follow and cope with this. Press WINDOWS key 1 to 5: To switch to an assigned conversation channel, after assigning this channel as outlined above. Press CONTROL SHIFT -: To switch to the conversation currently demanding attention, so that the most recent message is read out. Contact Hot Keys Press ALT SHIFT F12: To announce the last contact signed in. Press ALT SHIFT F12 twice quickly: To get automatically announce contacts signing in switched on. 8.2.11.3. Window-Eyes 4.21 to 5.0 Screenreader Hot Keys for Messenger Window-Eyes automatically notifies you of when your contacts sign in and send you messages, provided that a message window is not already open and active. Otherwise, Window-Eyes has few hot keys for MSN Messenger. Hyperactive window A automatically reads changes on the Status Line and hyperactive window B automatically reads when contacts have gone off line or when their online status has changed, e.g. if they are showing as gone to lunch. Additionally, the below general hot keys will be of use. Press CONTROL INSERT S: To hear the contents of the Status Line, where much activity taking place when using Messenger can be monitored. Press INSERT S: To get to the System Tray to be able to bring up an MSN Messenger Context Menu to open Messenger from and perform several other commands on it. 8.2.11.4. HAL 4.5 to 6.5 Screenreader Hot Keys for Messenger HAL has no special hot keys for MSN Messenger but watch the Dolphin Website as they may make some available before long. HAL automatically notifies you of when your contacts sign in and send you messages. You will find the general HAL hot keys below of use: Press Numpad 2: To hear the contents of the Status Line, where much activity taking place when using Messenger can be monitored. Press left SHIFT Numpad /: To get to the System Tray to be able to bring up an MSN Messenger Context Menu to open Messenger from and perform several other commands on it. 8.3. Other Chat Providers There are numerous chat providers, both for the general public and for blind people in particular. 8.3.1. General Providers Most of the better-known Web search engine providers, such as Yahoo!, Altavista, Lycoss, etc, host Web chat links of their own. Some speech-friendly sites are VoxChat and ICQ. In addition Windows 95/98 also provides Microsoft NetMeeting in: Start Menu\Program Files\Microsoft NetMeeting 8.3.2. Specialist Blind-Friendly Chat Providers More of these are becoming available but try the below two. 8.3.2.1. A-Chat There is a free keyboard and screenreader-friendly chat program called A-Chat downloadable from: http://snow.utoronto.ca/chat.html Which is specifically designed for blind and low vision users. The user can control how often messages are refreshed and stop the screen from refreshing before the message has been read. You can choose to receive an audible prompt each time a new message is received and read messages in your preferred order. The type, size and colour of font on screen can be customised. 8.3.2.2. The Million Web Chat Since the beginning of 2004, a chat service which has been created and designed so that it can be used with JAWS and Window- Eyes has been available, known as "The Million Web". It is a free text chat program downloadable from: www.themillionweb.com/chat 8.3.2.3. Accessible Chat There is also a user-friendly, text-based chat group for visually impaired chatters on the Topica list, called "Accessible Chat". You can get more information and download the requisite software by following the below instructions. Accessible Chat can be found at: www.gamesfortheblind.com Where you should TAB to and press ENTER on the "Accessible Chat" link. This software is free and provides a special blind-friendly interface via JFW or Window-Eyes but your typed in messages and the replies are immediately available. Private chat rooms are also catered for. The whole environment, whilst not being exactly the same as general chat rooms, is speech-friendly and moves at a pace which you can cope with. You can chat about anything here, compete against others using specialised online games, meet people and interchange ideas. You will have to download three files: a Visual Basic file named "vbrun60.exe" (but you may already have this version or a higher one of VB on your PC already); the JFW or WE script or set files, e.g. chat28.exe"; and, lastly, the "jfwchat.exe" compressed file, which is the actual chat software itself. Note that by the time you do this, these filenames may have changed slightly because of version updating. You should install all the three downloaded files, starting with the VBrun60.exe file. When unzipping the jfwchat.exe file, accept the default folder which it will copy into, if you have JFW Version 3.5; otherwise, type in the correct path if your version is earlier or later than Version 3.5, e.g. which is likely to be something like: c:\jaws50\settings\enu (with JAWS 5.0) or c:\documents and settings\user name\application data\freedom scientific\jaws 6.0\settings\enu (with JAWS 6.0) When installed the chat software can be launch from: Start Menu\program Files\Accessible Chat You should open the "Chat Help" file (also in the above folder) and read it thoroughly before using the service. Press the F2 key any time you want help in a particular place in the running program. Accessible Chat has the usual Windows Title Bar and Main Menu, with File, Edit, Channels, etc, so ARROW through these and note the shortcut keystrokes which are listed alongside the menu descriptions. The program is mainly keystroke driven, with the top row of F keys being the main method of interaction. to learn what each of these F keys does, just press CONTROL followed by any of the F keys for a verbal help message. When you first launch Accessible Chat you will be asked for a nickname, so provide one, and press ENTER on "OK"--and that is all the information you have to give. You should obtain a burst of audio sound and be taken online. Then, after a short wait, you can TAB around the options and ARROW up and down the list of currently online chatters. The Accessible Chat providers intend to extend this chat group to include voice chat in the very near future, so, if you have a sound card, speakers and a microphone, you will be able to chat in real-time audibly, instead of having to type your discussions. In fact, by the time you read this, voice chat will probably already be available. ******** >SECTION 9 USING THE INTERNET TO PHONE PEOPLE You can replace your telephone with the internet to make calls between computers anywhere in the world if you have the correct software. In this way you can keep your phone bills down to around a penny a minute on some pay-as-you-go Internet connections and to nothing extra if you have a monthly payment ISP connection. Skype is one program which you can do this with and it is reasonably accessible for screenreader users. Another such telephony program is Microsoft's MSN Messenger. However, note that you cannot use Internet telephony between different telephony programs, as you and your callers/contacts all have to be using the same software and related network server. 9.1. The Skype Internet Telephony Program--An overview Skype allows you to make phone calls via the Internet with other Skype users who are currently also online, registered with the service and also using the Skype software. You cannot phone other people's regular landline phones with Skype; you can only phone between computers currently online and running the Skype program at the same time as you are. However, the Skype makers do offer a piece of software called "SkypeOut" which will permit you to use your PC to phone anybody in the world's landline or mobile phone at a low minute by minute charge. Skype is quite good (with or without appropriate scripts, sets or maps) for screenreader and keyboard users and has shorter delays between you speaking into your microphone and the recipient hearing you than is the case with some other similar programs. Skype works best if you have a broadband connection but is also designed to work via a standard 33.6K or better modem. However, my experience is that those using dial-up modems will send poorer quality speech transfer to others. 9.2. System Requirements To run Skype you will need a minimum of: 1. According to the Skype makers you should be running A PC with Windows 2000 or XP but I have also successfully installed Skype on a Windows 98(SE) operating system and it has worked OK. Perhaps it may not be as stable on Windows operating systems before XP and they therefore do not want to support earlier versions of Windows. 2. A 400 MHz CPU. 3. 128 Mb of RAM. 4. 15 Mb of free hard disk space. 5. A sound card (with up-to-date drivers), speakers and good quality designed-for-the-purpose microphone/mic-headset. 6. A broadband Internet connection or a dial-up modem at at least 33.6 baud. Note 1: If you are running a screenreader, the above minimum CPU and memory requirements will need to be increased slightly to take account of the extra resources requirements of screenreaders. Note 2: For best quality audio output and reception, it is preferable if both parties to a conversation use a headset with onboard microphone rather than a stand-alone mic and speakers. 9.3. Downloading Skype and JAWS Scripts for Skype You can download the latest version of Skype (currently Version 1.1.0.79) and some JAWS scripts to work with this same version of Skype from the same site. Otherwise, if you are not a JAWS user, you can just download the Skype software. What you do is: 1. Use your browser to surf to: www.panix.com/~ccn/projects/jfw/skype.php 2. TAB about 14 times and press ENTER on a link entitled "Download the Scripts and Program". 3. Now move down to a table with a "Skype/JFW Scripts" link and press ENTER, If you are a JAWS user, otherwise skip this step and go straight to step 5. 4. You will receive the normal dialogue box telling you that the JAWS scripts file will be saved to disk and what the saved filename will be, e.g. something like "jfw-sk30.zip". This will only take a minute or two to download. 5. After the above scripts download (or skip to this stage without downloading the scripts if you do not use JAWS), you can now just ARROW down the same page two or three times to another link in the same table entitled "Skype Program" and press ENTER on this. The correct version (currently Version 1.1.0.79 of Skype) which corresponds with the just downloaded JAWS scripts will now take about 20 minutes to download with a 56K modem and the filename will be something like "skype-1.1.0.79" Note: If the above site stops providing Skype, the maker's home page where you can download it from as an alternative is: www.skype.com Just press ENTER on the "Download Skype for Windows, Linux, Pocket PC or Mac OSX Here", link near the top of the page. 9.4. Installing Skype and the JAWS Scripts To install the scripts firstly and then the Skype program continue as directed below. 9.4.1. JAWS Scripts Installation 1. If you are a JAWS user, now go to the downloaded JAWS scripts .zip file and unzip it as usual. If you do not use JAWS, skip to the next sub-section. 2. put these unzipped files into such as: c:\jaws51\settings\enu (with JAWS 5.1) or c:\documents and settings\user name\application data\freedom scientific\jaws 6.0\settings\enu (with JAWS 6.0) Note: These scripts will only work with versions of JAWS from 4.51 onwards. 9.4.2. Skype Software Installation To install the main Skype program: 1. Go to the downloaded Skype .exe file on your Desktop or wherever else you may have downloaded it to and press ENTER or SPACEBAR. 2. If Skype tries to take you online at this stage you can let it do so or, if you prefer, you can press the ESCAPE key a couple of times to stop this. You will now encounter the Skype welcome and installation wizard. You will find a list of languages which Skype recognises, so ARROW to the correct one for you and then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 3. Next you come to the licence agreement page, so TAB to "I do not Accept the Agreement" and then ARROW up to indicate that you do accept, then TAB to "Next" and press ENTRE. 4. Accept the default installation folder for Skype of: C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone by TABBING to "Next" and pressing ENTER. 5. You can now choose how Skype will behave after being installed or the means of launching it after installation. You will be in a list of three or four options. You can ARROW to "Create a Desktop Icon", "Start Skype when the Computer Starts", etc, depending on how you want Skype to be launched in future. You might wish to choose the second of these options if you have a broadband Internet connection and want Skype to launch every time you start your PC or the "Create a Desktop Icon" if you are using a pay-as-you-go dial-up connection; the choice is yours. Just press ENTER on the one you want. 6. The software will be installed in seconds and you will be on the last step. You can now ARROW through three choices: for launching Skype now or for viewing online release notes or an online user guide, the latter of which will immediately take you onto the Net to see this literature. Make the choice which suits you, e.g. press ENTER on "Launch Skype" if you want the program to start up without you firstly going onto the Internet. 7. The first of two forms completion stages is now encountered. If you are on broadband, you are already online and so you can complete a form to create a new Skype account. If not, you can press ENTER to leave the dial-up dialogue and complete these new account details offline, before then going online to submit this form. Do it whichever way you find to be the most convenient. 8. This new user form requires you to go into forms mode and complete several editfields with straightforward details such as entering a name for yourself (either true, a nickname, a pseudonym, or whatever you like), not exceeding 32 characters in length, starting with an alphabetical letter and having no spaces in it, e.g. "John-Wilson007", and you may have to try a second name for yourself if the first one you chose is already being used by someone else; the password should be at least four characters long; the "Log this user on Automatically" checkbox is off but if you want in future to get logged onto Skype automatically without having to provide log on details, press SPACEBAR to check this on; and the other important field is to provide your correct e-mail address so that Skype can communicate with you and also remind you of your password if you forget this. The list of countries you have to choose from provides "Great Britain" as a choice for UK residents. At this stage, if you are already online, you can press ENTER on the "Next" button to submit your log on details. If you are working offline, you should now go online before pressing ENTER on the "Next" button to submit your form. Note 1: The above create new account dialogue also holds a property sheet for existing Skype users to use to sign on to their Skype account. You move from the create new account sheet to the existing user sheet by pressing CONTROL TAB. However, when you are already online and launch Skype, it should automatically log on to the Skype network site for you. Note 2: If you elected to receive information from the Skype network about updates, etc, when completing the above form, you will receive an e-mail from them straight after logging on/signing on which provides some general Skype information. 9. After a few seconds you will encounter another form on which to complete some personal identification details so that any other Skype user can use the Skype search for contacts feature to find people and thereby be able to find and phone you when you are online with Skype. This form asks many personal details but will not display your e-mail address if you provide this. You can complete all of these details if you wish or just the bare essentials if you like, such as your name, e-mail address, country and town of residence, and so on. After completing the fields you think appropriate, TAB to the "Update" button and press ENTRE to submit the form. Note that you do not have to fill this form in at all and that you can later open this form and complete or change it by going into "Your Personal Profile" in the File menu whilst online. However, if you want to make contacts and have a list of other Skype users to talk to, you would be advised to fill in at least the bare ID essentials suggested above. 10. You have now completed the essential Skype registration and sign on/log on details. Note 1: If you decide to uninstall Skype, you should do this in the usual way via the Control Panel. However, note that you will be asked if you want to keep your friends and Contacts List on hard disk to have this available if you later wish to reinstall Skype, so TAB to and press ENTER on "Yes" to retain this or "No" to completely remove all traces of Skype. Note 2: If you use a firewall which blocks Skype from connecting to the Skype network on the Internet to log on, you will have to open some extra outgoing TCP port connections (see the section entitled "Viewing/Changing Options whilst Offline" for more about where to do this). 9.5. Launching Skype You can launch Skype in a number of ways: 1. It will automatically start up when you start Windows if you set it up to do so during the above installation. 2. You can Launch Skype from the shortcut icon on your Desktop if you installed it in this way, by pressing Windows key and M or D and then S until Skype is spoken and then press ENTER. 3. You can find it in the System Tray (which means that it is actually running in the background to alert you to anyone trying to contact you) and ARROW down and press ENTER on "Skype Connecting". A Context Menu opens up and you can ARROW down the several options in here and press ENTER on "Open Skype". 4. You can go the long way about this via the Program Files folder by pressing: Windows Key, P (for Programs), s (for Skype) several times until it is spoken and then press ENTER twice to launch Skype. 9.6. Pen-Picture of the Skype Screen The Skype screen can change according to whether or not you are online and which Toolbars and tabs you have enabled or turned off. However, the basic view is that the top line has the word Skype on it and your Skype name. Below this comes the usual Main menu with menus of File, View, Tools, Call and Help. Straight underneath this is the Toolbar, if you have not turned this off, but your screenreader may only read graphic numbers here unless you run your screenreader's automatic labelling of graphic feature, e.g. Insert G with Window-Eyes and CONTROL INSERT G with JAWS. On the next line you come to the Skype tabs, of which there may be only two or three or up to eight or nine. The first four are usually labelled: "Start", "Contact", "Dial" and "Contact List". Underneath the above comes the main part of the window which will hold a list of your contacts (when you have created one) and you will also encounter an editfield you can get to by pressing the TAB key which is designed for you to type a contact's Skype name into and press ENTER to enable you to call that contact. 9.7. Skype's System Tray Context Menu and Skype Me Mode When you start your computer, Skype places itself in your System Tray to run in the background and monitor anyone trying to contact you whilst you are online. You can effect several commands via this Context Menu: 1. Enter the System Tray by pressing your screenreader's hot key for this, e.g. INSERT S or Windows key B with Window-Eyes, left SHIFT Numpad / with HAL and INSERT F11 with JAWS. 2. ARROW down to "Skype Connecting" and press ENTER to open the Context Menu. 3. In this menu you have several commands you can carry out, including: A. The "Quit" option: This lets you close Skype down altogether so that it is no longer even running in the background from the Sys Tray. B. The "Change Status" Option: This has a sub-menu to right ARROW into with options like "Skype Me" to let people know you are ready to take phone calls from anyone in the world whether or not you have given specific authorisation for them to do so (but beware of potential nuisance, fraudulent and spam-type calls if you connect in Skype Me mode), "Away" to let people know you are not available to take calls, etc. For these commands to be effective, you have to be online at the time you give them. You can also access these status options in the File menu. C. The "Open Skype" option: This, of course, launches Skype in full screen mode for you to use. Note: This Skype Context Menu can hold other options as well, depending on your status when going into it, e.g. it may be labelled "Skype not logged in" if you have not logged on yet or automatically done so. Within this option you will then have a "Log In" option to log you in with and will have to provide your log in details, such as name and password. 9.8. Making and Receiving Audio Calls with Skype You can talk to people with Skype in a number of ways but firstly you may wish to create a Contacts List from which to select them. 9.8.1. Making a Call without using the Contacts List You can make a call to any Skype user without firstly adding them to your Contacts List but you will be doing this without knowing if they are online to answer it. You will already have to know their Skype name to do this or firstly have to find them by searching for them. To call someone without using the Contacts List (which will be blank when you first install Skype): 1. If Skype is not already running, launch it from its place on your hard disk or from any shortcut icon you may have for it on your Desktop or from the System Tray. 2. If you have already signed on and provided a name and password with the Skype network as directed earlier, you will automatically be logged on with the Skype system when you connect to the Internet. However, you may have to physically switch from "Offline" mode to "Online" mode before you can continue by pressing ALT F (for File) and ENTER on "Change Status". In here ARROW to and press ENTER on "Online". You can also achieve this via the System Tray. 2. If you know the person you want to call's Skype name (not necessarily their correct personal name), you can simply TAB on the Skype screen until you get to an editfield and then type this Skype name in here, e.g. Firefly" or "John-Wilson007", etc, and then press ENTER or SPACEBAR to open up a line to them and make the call. 3. If this person is online and has Skype running, they will be able to answer you if they choose to; otherwise your call will fail. Note: You can also call someone by firstly searching for them on the Skype network's database, opening up a Context Menu on their found name and pressing ENTER on the "Call" option (see the next sub-section for how to search and find people in this way). 9.8.2. Logging On and Finding Contacts To place people into your Contacts List for easy access and to be able to call them and know whether or not they are online and available to take a call: 1. If Skype is not already running, launch it from its place on your hard disk or from any shortcut icon you may have for it on your Desktop or from the System Tray. 2. If you have already signed on and provided a name and password with the Skype network as directed earlier, you will automatically be logged on with the Skype system when you connect to the Internet. However, you may have to physically switch from "Offline" mode to "Online" mode before you can continue by pressing ALT F (for File) and ENTER on "Change Status". In here ARROW to and press ENTER on "Online". You can also achieve this via the System Tray. 3. To find and add friends/contacts to your Contacts List, you have to press ALT T (for Tools) and then ARROW down to "Search for Skype Users" and press ENTER. This will be unavailable if you are not already online on the Net. 4. In the new window/dialogue which now opens up, you can search for friends or other contacts by name or any other information which they have provided in their personal profile. What you do is: A. You will be in the "Look For" editfield to type the name of someone in to see if they are current Skype users and can be found on the Skype network of users, provided that they are using their correct name or you know what nickname, pseudonym or Skype name they use. B. You then TAB once to "Search" and press ENTER. C. After a few seconds' wait, you will be able to TAB several times to just past an "Advanced" button to a listbox entitled "Responses" and ARROW up and down a list of found Skype users of that name with some basic ID details about them, if any were found. Note that if you are using an earlier version of JAWS which the above scripts do not work on or a different screenreader without special set or map files, the "Responses" list title may not be announced and you may hear nothing if you ARROW down in this list. However, if you go into your screenreader's mouse mode, you will be able to view the found Skype users list and access the related Context menu as outlined below. D. IF you continue to TAB through this dialogue, you will observe other buttons, such as "Clear" to clear the Look For editfield to type other names to find in and you can press ENTER on a "Advanced" button to extend the range of editfields/criteria you can do searches for people on within this same dialogue box, e.g. you can search on a phone number only, on an e-mail address, on a date of birth, etc. However, remember that these search criteria will only work if the person you are looking for has entered these details in his/her personal profile form. 5. To add one of these searched for and found people to your Contacts List, you just ARROW to the person's name from the above "Responses" list and press SHIFT F10 or right click to open a Context Menu. In here ARROW to "Add to Contacts" and press ENTER. You should also note the other options you have in this menu as well, such as either to call them or to send them a typed chat message. You can use the "Call" option at any time and will get through to them if they are currently online, even if you do not put them into your Contacts List. Note 1: When you first find someone to add to your Contacts List, this person will not immediately be available for full inclusion in this list, as they must firstly be asked by the Skype network system if they want to be available to receive calls from you at any time when they are online and they must give permission first. The ability for you to put them into your Contacts List and know when they are online is at this stage known as "Pending Authorisation" but this person will still currently show in this list as pending. Note 2: If you cannot find someone by their real name but you know their Skype name, you may be able to find them using that. 6. Shortly after you have initially added someone to your Contacts List as described above, they will receive a message from the Skype network advising them that you want to be able to call them and asking them to agree or decline this. The message they would receive (and which you will receive when someone wants to add you as a friend to their Contacts List) basically brings up a pop-up message on screen and provides an audible tone as well to alert you to this. You are told that this person wants to add you to their Contacts List as a friend so that they can be notified when you are online. There is a checkbox you can TAB to and view the current status of this, which will be checked on to accept this request, so all you have to do is TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to allow that person to see when you are online so that they know when they can call you. If you want to deny this, press SPACEBAR on the checkbox to turn it off first, although the person who requested this will not be advise that you do not want to let them know when you are online. This person will still be able to call you but will not know whether or not you are online when they do so, so it will be pot luck. 9.8.3. Calling Someone from your Contacts List Once you have added one or more friends to your contact list you can call one of them from this list by: 1. Go to the "Contact" tab on the row of tabs just below the Toolbar (in mouse mode if you are not a JAWS user or are using JAWS 4.50 or earlier or have not downloaded the JAWS scripts for Skype) and press your screenreader's left click button to open the contact list. This tab is the second tab from the left side of the screen. If you are using JAWS 4.51 or later and the JAWS scripts, you can achieve this by pressing CONTROL SHIFT 2 quickly twice and then ENTER. 2. You next ARROW with either the upside down T-shape set of ARROW keys or the ARROW keys on your Numpad to the contact's Skype name you wish to phone and press SHIFT F10 or your screenreader's right mouse key click button to open a Context Menu and ARROW to "Call Contact" and press ENTER. Before going into this Context Menu you will know if they are currently online to take your call as it will tell you in the Contacts List at the end of the line with their name on, e.g. it will say "Offline", "Online" or "Pending Authorisation". 3. You will hear, through your speakers or headset, a typical phone-type ring tone until the recipient of your call answers it and speaks to let you know he is there. So you now simply talk to one another as if you were using normal landline telephones. If the contact you are calling is offline, you will receive a message advising you of this. Remember, if you are having more than a one-way conversation (conferencing) or you have yourself received a call and are not sure who it is you are talking to, you can press CONTROL SHIFT O with the JAWS scripts to identify the person. 4. You or the other conversation participant can terminate the call at any time by pressing ALT C (for Call" and then ARROWING up to and pressing ENTER on "Hang Up". Note 1: If you know the Skype name of a contact you wish to call, such as jim.oxford777, you can just press the TAB key when on the Skype main screen to an editfield. This is the speed dial field which you can just type the contact's Skype name ( possibly not their real name) into and then press ENTER to make the call. You can also right click a contact who is also shown as online in your friends Contacts List or Call List (history of already made calls) and then ARROW to and press ENTER on "Call". Note 2: You can also call someone (whether or not they are in your Contacts List) by simply pressing ENTER on the "Call" option in the Context Menu mentioned in step 5 of the last sub-section above entitled "Logging on and Finding Contacts". 9.8.4. Answering a Call Someone is Making to You If someone is ringing you while you have Skype running and you are online: 1. You will hear the sound of a ringing phone through your speakers or headset. 2. If Skype is not already the application you are working in, ALT TAB to it or open it from the System Tray or from the Desktop and then either: A. Press ALT C (for Call) and then A (for Answer) and then press ENTER on the caller's name which will be displayed in the sub- menu you are now in; or B. Go to the tabs just below the Toolbar at the top of the screen. A new tab will have appeared their called "Incoming Call" (or it may just have the name of the person calling you). Left click on this and select whether you want to answer the call or reject it. 3. As soon as you elect to answer a call you can start your two- way voice conversation. Remember, if you are having more than a one-way conversation (conferencing) or you have yourself received a call and are not sure who it is you are talking to, you can press CONTROL SHIFT O with the JAWS scripts to identify the person, when you will hear a message such as "1 contact online - Jim Smith". 4. You or the other conversation participant can terminate the call at any time by pressing ALT C (for Call" and then ARROWING up to and pressing ENTER on "Hang Up". 9.9. Configuring Skype in its Options Dialogue You can change the way Skype works and decide who may and may not call you from Skype's three property sheets within its Options dialogue. However, this dialogue contains different property sheets, depending whether or not you are online or offline when you go into it. 9.9.1. Viewing/Changing Options whilst Offline When offline, Skype has only one sheet in its Options dialogue, which is the "Configuration" sheet. 1. Whilst offline, press F (for File) and then P (for Options), when you will come into a single property sheet dialogue labelled "Configuration". 2. TAB through the various options in here and note that, in the main, it covers which ports Skype uses on your PC to listen to incoming calls from other Skype users. It also has a "Proxy" checkbox you can check on if you use a proxy server. 3. If Skype is working OK for you, do not change anything in here. If Skype is unable to communicate through your firewall, you may have to change some of the default ports it communicates through. Go into mouse mode and read the information on screen about this and perhaps contact the Skype support team for detailed advice via the "Report a Problem" option in the Help menu. 9.9.2. Viewing/Changing Skype's Options whilst Online If you go online with Skype, the above-mentioned Options dialogue will now contain: 1. Press F (for File) and then P (for Options), when you will enter the first of three property sheets, called "General". 2. In the "General" sheet, you can TAB through and view or change such things as whether or not Skype will start automatically when Windows starts, how long in minutes you want the program to wait before it starts to automatically show you as being away from your computer and not available, e.g for 5 minutes is the default but you can change this, etc. 3. Now CONTROL TAB to the second sheet which is labelled "Personal". In here TAB through and note such things as the ability to change your Skype password. 4. Again CONTROL TAB to the "Privacy" sheet and TAB through the options. In here you can check on with the SPACEBAR "Remember my Password" if it is not already on so that you do not have to provide this every time you use Skype. You can delete your history of past Skype conversations and who they were with, and there is a "Manage Blocked Users" button to activate if you want to specify a given troublesome caller as in future not being allowed to call you. If you do this and this person calls you, you will simply not know about this as the call will not be allowed through. You can also do this blocking via the "Manage Blocked Users" option in the Tools menu. 5. If you make any changes in the above sheets, remember to TAB to the "Save" button and press ENTER to keep these changes. 9.10. Shortcut Keystrokes for Use with Skype Skype has no specific shortcuts for its use. It is simply either Toolbar, TAB or menu driven. 9.10.1. General Skype Shortcuts and Notification Sounds As already stated, Skype has no special shortcuts of its own but later versions may soon get some built into them. When you are online and on the Skype main screen, you can press your TAB key and get to an editfield to type the Skype name of one of your contacts into and then press ENTER or SPACEBAR to call that person. Despite this lack of shortcuts, you should be able to successfully use Skype via its menus and TAB buttons but you will have to employ your screenreader's mouse mode and left and right click simulation keys or SHIFT F10 from time to time. Additionally, Skype will provide you with automatic sounds as prompts, e.g. tones when you ring out and ringing sounds when you receive a call, musical notes when messages are placed on screen, etc. 9.10.2. JAWS Specialist Hot Keys for Skype If you have downloaded the correct, corresponding Skype program and its Scripts from the site I recommended in "Downloading Skype and JAWS Scripts for Skype" above, things should work OK. If you have unassociated scripts and Skype version, then they probably will not work at all. The Skype scripts I have recommended were only written in Mid-February and you have Chris Nestrud to thank for these. Of course, you will have to be online and signed on with the Skype network for most hot keys to work and, indeed, for several Main menu options and Toolbar buttons to work as well. The hot keys provided by the JAWS Skype scripts Version 3.0 are: Press CONTROL SHIFT O: To get online contacts announced, or to identify the person calling when you receive a call or to identify the person you currently have on hold. Press CONTROL SHIFT L: to go to the responses list within a contact search dialogue. Press CONTROL SHIFT M: If all of the above responses are not displayed in the search dialogue, i.e. after pressing the above command first. Press CONTROL SHIFT T: TO find out how many tabs are showing just under the Toolbar. If you press CONTROL SHIFT T twice quickly, this will bring up a list of currently available tabs so that you can ARROW to and open one by pressing ENTER on its name. Press CONTROL SHIFT W: To launch the Skype scripts home page. Press CONTROL SHIFT 1 through 9 (depending on how many tabs are actually showing): To switch to a particular tab, e.g. CONTROL SHIFT 1 to switch to the "Start" tab, CONTROL SHIFT 2 to switch to the "Contacts" tab, etc. If you press CONTROL SHIFT 1 through 9 quickly twice, this will set focus to the tab control itself so that you can then use your left and right ARROW keys to move amongst tabs. With focus on a tab in this way, you can then press your screenreader's right mouse click simulation key to bring up a CONTEXT Menu of commands, e.g. in the Conference tab you can change conference properties or close the conference, etc. Press CONTROL SHIFT H: To train the scripts to recognise the correct colours if you are unable to ARROW through your Contacts List, otherwise this is not necessary so do not do it. Press INSERT V: To toggle several Skype options, e.g. to read chat activity, automatic speaking of online status, etc. Note: JAWS itself (at least up to Version 6.0) comes bundled with no specific built-in hot keys of its own for Skype, so you will have to exist on the above JAWS 3.0 scripts hot keys and/or by activating Toolbar options and tabs and by using the Main menu options and Context Menus. ******** >APPENDIX 1 WHERE TO FIND MORE INTERNET INFORMATION More information on various aspects of using the Internet can be obtained via a number of resources. Below I list some of particular interest. 10.1. From the Internet Itself Go to net.dummies.net 10.2. In Braille A Guide to the Internet and How to Access It, from the RNIB--A free beginner's brief, non-technical overview of Internet facilities. Phone: 0845 7023153. Internet for Dummies, 1997, from the NLB, on 0161 494 0217--an in-depth tour of the Internet from a screen and mouse-click point of view (but a little out of date now). Access-It, from the RNIB--a monthly specialist visually- impaired oriented computer magazine in Braille. This is also available on floppy disk and by e-mail. Compute-It, from the RNIB--a braille monthly with standard articles of interest to visually impaired people from a collection of the mainstream PC magazines. This is also available on floppy disk and by e-mail. 10.3. On Cassette Several PC magazines published monthly and recorded onto cassette, floppy disk, downloadable files and CD-ROM by TNAUK are available, Tel: 01435 866102. Website: www.tnauk.org.uk A UK organisation produce a monthly C90 computer tape called Talking Computers. Ted Martin runs it and is on e-mail ted@pound.charitydays.co.uk. Another UK C90 tape sponsored by Dolphin Access Systems but produced independently by Simon Wilks is called The Whistler and he is on: 020 84780673. 10.4. By E-Mail The Microsoft Accessibility Update, From Microsoft--a periodic access-related bulletin e-mailed to subscribed persons. Registers for it by completing the online form at www.microsoft.com/enable/news/subscribe-u.htm. However, they suspended publishing this Accessibility Update in 2004 but may resume its provision at some later date. To see what accessibility news bulletins and articles Microsoft are currently supplying, just go to: www.microsoft.com/enable/news A weekly US bulletin taken from the New York Times called Tech Update is e-mailed to subscribers by Wil Smith. Wil can be contacted at: e-mail wilsmith@iglou.com. A monthly UK magazine bulletin available worldwide and sponsored by the RNIB is called "Eaccess". You can register to receive it free by sending an e-mail to: eab-subs@headstar.com with 'subscribe eab' in the subject header. ******** >APPENDIX 2 LIST OF E-MAIL LISTS DEALING WITH PARTICULAR TOPICS OF VISUAL IMPAIRMENT 11.1. List of VI-Related Lists and Examples of How to Subscribe to Them BASR-L--Discusses Web browser and screenreader accessibility matters. To subscribe send an e-mail to: listproc@trace.wisc.edu Leave the subject line blank and in the body type: subscribe basr-l firstname lastname BCAB--UK Blind Computer Users' Association list. To subscribe send an e-mail to: majordomo@cs.man.ac.uk Leave the subject line blank and in the body of the message type: subscribe bcab AVIOS--This is the UK Association of Visually Impaired Office Staff information and discussion list. They discuss telephony and general UK office-worker-related topics.To join send a blank message to: avios-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Leave the subject line and the body of the message blank. to Unsubscribe from the AVIOS list, send a blank message to: avios-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com To temporarily suspend AVIOS list messages so that you receive none until you tell the list to start sending messages again, e.g. for whilst you are on holiday, send a blank message to: avios-nomail@yahoogroups.com and to recommence receiving mail at a later date, send a blank message to: avios-normal@yahoogroups.com Note: these subscribe, unsubscribe, nomail and normal commands are universal for all lists on Yahoogroups, so if you know them for one Yahoogroups list, you know them for them all. audyssey--This is a dedicated games magazine for blind people. To receive this e-mail magazine send an e-message to: jmeddaug@cris.com Leave the subject line blank and type in the body: subscribe audyssey Blind-L--Deals with non-Windows computer issues. To join send an e-message to: listserv@uafsysb.uark.edu and type in the body: subscribe blind-l firstname lastname Lookout--A list for users of the Lookout and Dual screenreader and magnifier. It provides peer support and update information for these packages. To subscribe send an e-mail to: lookout-support-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and leave the body of the message blank. blindwebbers--Provides discussion on and tips about creating blind-friendly Internet Websites for both experienced and learner visually impaired Web authors. To subscribe just send a blank e-mail to: blindwebbers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and leave the subject line and message body blank. To contribute to the Blindwebbers discussions, send your message to: blindwebbers@yahoogroups.com GUIspeak--Discusses Windows-related computer topics. To add your name to the mailing list send an e-mail to: listserv@listserv.nodak.edu And in the body type: subscribe guispeak firstname lastname National Talking Express--Discusses matters arising from the UK NTE monthly tape magazine. To subscribe just send a message to: nteexpress-subscribe@smartgroups.com and leave the subject line and body of the message blank. Blind Attic--This is the US Blind Treasures trading, buying and selling list for all types of goods, whether new or second-hand. To subscribe to the Blind Attic list send an e-mail to: blindattic-request@blindtreasures.com If you want to advertise something for sale or request if someone has something you want on the Blind Attic list, send your e-mail to: blindattic@blindtreasures.com VIsector--A UK-based list for UK companies in the field of VI commodities to post job vacancies to. To subscribe and receive notice of these job vacancies send an e-mail to: visector-request@ukvijobs.com Leave the subject line blank and in the body of the message type: subscribe visector jwjw@onetel.com but, of course, do not type my e-mail address in, rather insert your own address. You cannot post messages to the VIsector list, only receive them and then respond directly to the job vacancy advertiser. Blind-Chit-Chat--Provides a forum for blind people to have informal discussions. You can subscribe by sending an e-mail to: blind-chit-chat-subscribe@egroups.com Further examples of the format to use when subscribing to mailing lists: To subscribe to the JAWS discussion lists: For UK residents, send a message to: jaws-uk@freelists.org and type: Subscribe in the Subject Line and leave the body of the message blank. To suspend mail whilst away for a few days send a message to: jaws-uk-request@freelists.org and in the subject line type: Vacation When you return from holiday send to the same address the following command: unset vacation To leave the jaws-UK list, send to: jaws-uk-request@freelists.org and type: unsubscribe in the subject line. If you wish to join the US JAWS list, send a blank message to: jfwlite-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and leave the rest of the message blank. To subscribe to the UK Recycle-It second-hand computer equipment and other items list send an e-mail to: recycle-it-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and add something like "Please add me to your list" in the subject field and leave the body of the message blank. To join the UK Access UK list for discussion on general technology and other access-related issues, send a message to: access-uk-request@freelists.org Leave the message body blank and in the subject line type: subscribe To post a message on Access-UK, send your message to: access-uk@freelists.org To suspend mail or leave the Access UK list, use the same commands as outlined above for the JAWS-UK list. To find a mailing list on a particular topic you are interested in and to subscribe, send an e-mail to: listserv@listserv.net and in the body of the message type, for example: list global blindness or list global fishing with the last word(s) being the subject you are interested in, namely "blindness" or "fishing". In a few minutes you will receive an e-mail telling you how to sign onto any lists which Listserv have registered with them in respect of these topics. Of course, this will only be a list of the available Listserv lists and not any which are hosted by other providers like Smartgroups, Yahoo!, Freelists, etc, so you will have to do something similar (but probably not exactly the same) to get lists from other providers. 11.2. Downloadable Comprehensive List of e-Mail Lists of Interest to Visually Impaired People There is a list of e-mail lists for you to peruse and find lists which might interest you to join. This is at: www.whitestick.co.uk and you can find and download many more texts and programs from this site as well. ******** >APPENDIX 3 LIST OF HUNDREDS OF GENERAL WEBSITES OF INTEREST 12.1. Recommended Sites to Visit Many of the Websites in this appendix are repeats of those mentioned in the main body of this tutorial, although many more are only mentioned here and nowhere else. This appendix, however, does not encapsulate every site which is alluded to in the above sections. If you cannot find what you want here, search the main body of the tutorial for it. When entering one of the below Website URLs in to your Web browser's Address Bar, type all characters and symbols up to the two dashes (--), but do not include the dashes. You do not usually need to type in the prefix of an address (http://), as browsers automatically insert this for you. The sites with an asterisk (*) at the end of their brief description have been created with the screenreader in mind for maximum accessibility. Most of the others should be found to be reasonably accessible with a good screenreader. Please remember that websites are appearing and disappearing on the Internet all of the time. Some are frequently rewritten and others change their URL from time to time. Additionally, the sites at the top of this list are more likely to be recently created than those towards the bottom. www.tpb.se--This site provides two free daisy book reading programs. The most basic is called TPB Reader and is around a 12 Mb download or can be ordered on CD. The more advanced reader is called Playback 2000 and is only available on CD due to its size. This is a Swedish libraries site and you should go to the "English" link near the top of the home page.* www.en.wikimedia.org--Holds the site of an impressive online encyclopedia which is kept up to date and added to by volunteers. This is one of the world's largest reference points and encyclopedias. www.savemoneynow.com--Is a site where you can compare prices and obtain advice on making savings on household bills such as gas and electricity. www.apple.com/podcasting--This is where you can view an online tutorial to learn how to create and listen to podcasts. A podcast is a broadcast on any topic they like either made by a corporation or private individual and posted on the Net for anyone else to download and listen to. They are usually posted as compressed files, such as in MP3 format. www.switchwithwitch.com--Is another prices comparison site but this time mainly for phone providers. It also tells you how to switch provider. www.moneysupermarket.com--Lets you compare credit card interest rates to get the best/lowest rates. www.tradingstandards.gov.uk--Provides a Government site with information about the UK postal and telephone preference service to get onto the list so that you receive no or at least fewer unwanted phone calls from advertisers and promoters and fewer unsolicited junk mail letters. www.revealweb.org.uk--Here is the UK's National Library for the Blind's Revealweb Website holding the names and details of many UK organisations and individuals who provide accessible goods and services for visually impaired people. www.vip-highstreet.com--From this consumer-orientated Website you can jump from links to high street shops which themselves have accessible shopping sites. There are links to supermarkets, furniture shops, electrical and computer shops, etc, and there is information pertaining to customer rights.* www.applianceonline.co.uk--Is a shopping site where you can purchase many different types of home appliance, such as cookers and washing-machines, often at prices significantly lower than high street shops. www.cinebench.com--Allows you to download a free computer benchmarking program to run and find out the efficiency of the most important parts of your PC such as processor and memory to see if it has any running problems, bottle-necks and parts which could do with upgrading, etc. www.websightuk.org--Hosts a site for VI persons which provides information of interest to blind people, holds reviews and permits you to hear online features such as the UK Soundings tape magazine.* www.processtext.com--Provides a site where you can download several programs which are designed to convert many types of files to other formats, including converting Adobe PDF files to other formats such as MS Word. www.cbfsms.com--Is where you can access a free computer to mobile phone text messaging service. www.tafn.org.uk/audio.htm--This is a radio guide from where you can listen to a range of on-demand BBC, general independent UK and also some international radio stations from one site. There is no subscription and the site also has zoom facilities on each page for screen magnification.* www.talkingproducts.co.uk/index_text.htm--Supplies information about many of the talking gadgets and other products which might be of use to visually impaired people.* www.yrguk.com/entertainment/jungle--Provides a speech-enabled and blind-friendly jungle adventure game. The main site at www.yrguk.com also carries several other blind-friendly games and information links.* www.yrguk.com--Contains an audio news, radio station etc, site specially created for blind users. You can get results without having to navigate Web pages, just by pressing specific numbers on your keyboard.* www.webformator.com--Is where you can download a free Web page formatting program called Webformator to make Web pages more accessible to blind people. It works with all screenreaders and can deal with pages containing Flash 6 and also pages with tables on them. You will need IE5.01 or higher and Windows 98 or higher.* www.gamesfortheblind.com--Provides a chat facility called Accessible Chat free of charge. This features a special speech-friendly interface you can access via JFW or Window- Eyes for visually impaired people to engage in type-talk chatting in a manageable environment.* www.moneyspider.com--Contains free information for ISA investors. www.themillionweb.com/demos--Here is where you can download a demo of a screenreader-friendly version of the Millionaire quiz game. www.callcredit.co.uk, www.equifax.co.uk and www.experian.co.uk-- Are all sites where UK residents can check their own personal credit worthiness files and discover their standing and, perhaps, get an idea if anyone else has tried to use your personal details illegally to obtain such as credit cards, loans, etc and given you a bad record. www.upmystreet.com--Allows you to enter your UK post code (or anyone else's) and then receive lots of information about that area, e.g. the name of the local M.P., whereabouts of local take- ways, restaurants, etc. www.sightconnections.com--Is a site created by a visually impaired person to facilitate the use of over 250 e-mail discussion lists for visually impaired people plus many Internet radio stations. It features Europe's only radio station specifically for blind people, which is called VIP On Air.* www.chpi.org/whatsnew.html--Is the url from which to download a braille translator called "XML2BRL". It converts either XML or TXT files to embossable Braille or Braille which can be then read on a Braille display and is freeware. It only works on Linux- based computers but a Windows version is due out soon.* www.aprompt.ca--Provides a place to download a Web page accessibility repair tool called A-Prompt to find problems with Website accessibility and take the Web Master through how to fix them step by step.* www.adaptech.org--This site permits you to view and download a selection of free and low-cost adapted software packages for visually impaired people, such as screen magnifiers, OCRs and text-to-speech programs but some of these are only available in the French language. Go to the "Downloads" link to get to the list of software.* www.aida32.hu--Provides a Web-based utility which can tell you how much RAM you have in your computer and what type of RAM and speed it is. It will also advise you if you have any free RAM memory slots on your motherboard. www.phonedirectorysearch.com/internat.htm--Is a source for obtaining international phone numbers. Many listings are in English but some are in their countries native language. www.lastminute.com--Is the location to find last-minute, cheap travel tickets for flights and holidays. www.tesco.com/access--This is the online shopping site for the Tesco supermarket, from where you can choose your goods and then have them delivered. This link has been made specially accessible for screenreader users.* www.centralwebs.co.uk/links/books.html--Is a Web page from which you can download a number of free book texts, view online references and also the site contains a free text to speech reading program. www.sightconnections.com--Provides a Web page with links to around 47 streaming radio stations and 2 TV streams from Australia. www.oneformat.com--Since September 2003, has been making available a way of overriding a Web designer's choice of colour, print size and font and background images by providing a Website where users can create and download their own style sheets. These style sheets can then link to a Web browser for use on other Websites. http://en.wiipedia.org--Is the site for a free encyclopedia which is not especially for blind people but can be used quite successfully. www.moneyfacts.co.uk--Which provides a site to view many financial organisations' offerings in accounts, bonds, mortgages, interest rates, etc. You can also find out this type of information at www.news.ft.com and at www.fsa.gov.uk. www.jungle.com--A site from which you can make online commodities purchases, such as music Cds, computer software and hardware, mobile phones, PC games, electrical goods and much more. Sign up for their weekly newsletter near the top of their home page. www.disabledworkers.org--Is where you can find information about disabled workers in given fields in your locality if you need one of them to do work for you and where you yourself can register on the database for inclusion as a disabled worker if you qualify. www.sports.com--Gives Net access to a great wealth of sports information. www.ihavemoved.com--Provides a site on which, if you have just changed address, you can have everyone who needs to know automatically advised of your new address. Your new details will be passed on to the people/organisations you tell it to advise at no charge, e.g. banks, utility companies, clubs, friends, etc. www.ebooklocator.com--Provides a searching site to help find details of book titles published in e-book format. It contains details on many thousands of e-books published by over 400 publishers. www.sortit.org.uk--This is a newly created RNIB Website aimed at the 11 to 16 age group, containing general information, details on leisure subjects, teenage magazine availability, etc.* www.royalmail.com/access--Provides an accessible equivalent of the Royal Mail's general Website. It meets with Bobby standards. You can access all kinds of postal-related information and supply an address in order to be given the post code which pertains to that address* www.home.earthlink.net./~blindworld--Features an American site specialising in blindness issues, such as news, medication, blind sports, blindness research, products and gadgets for the blind, and the like.* www.telediscount.co.uk--Is a UK company which provides a Website through which you can make cheap phone calls abroad without having to register with them or put money up front to use them. You just log onto the site, open up a list of about 150 phone call destination countries, view what the charge will be and then type in the abroad phone number you wish to ring. You can obtain standard (non-mobile) calls for the cost of UK local calls or less. www.uswitch.com--Provides a UK energy price comparison service to find out where to get the best gas, electricity, phone bill, etc, suppliers. www.eyes2eyes.com--Is a site run by a visually impaired American providing blind-related information about such matters as personal, employment, medical, safety and vision issues. Visitors can submit articles and tips and post messages to others.* www.allexperts.com--Provides a large Website where you can select a topic and ask any questions of an expert by activating an e- mail link and typing in your query. The expert, who will be a volunteer and a real live person, will e-mail the answer back to you. They have experts on just about any topic you can imagine. www.audiobooksforfree.com--Provides a download site where books can be obtained for free. www.saveonyourbills.co.uk--Gives you access to comparative information about goods, services and utility providers to check if you are getting the best value for money with your current providers. This type of information can also be obtained at www.ukpower.co.uk and www.energywatch.org.uk. www.handybits.com/shredder.htm--Is a Web page from which you can download a free file shredder, i.e. a small program which does the same for computer files that an office shredder does for hard copy paper. Shredded files can then not be recovered by unauthorised persons (or yourself) and reinstated and viewed on your PC. www.accessplace.com--Is a daily updated site of over 4,000 links to other sites in over 300 categories. Its a quick way to find what you want and then intuitively and easily select and be taken to any of them. www.blindtreasures.com--This is a US site specifically for blind people to auction just about anything, not just IT equipment. For more information and how to use it, just surf to the site and look around. http://onlineshop.rnib.org.uk--Hosts the UK RNIB Internet shopping site to purchase VI adapted goods and services. www.disabledgo.info--Houses a site for people with sensory impairments where info on accessible places like pubs, restaurants and theatres can be found in many towns and cities. How to get there, etc, is given and the cities/places listed are being added to continually. If you want to give them details of an accessible venue you have discovered, do so via their e-mail address of: feedback@disabledgo.info. www.grabameal.co.uk--Contains online menus for foodstuffs by food type/region. www.meru.org.uk/speechmakers/powertalk.html--Is the download URL for a free MS Powerpoint speech API to verbalise what is on the screen when using Powerpoint. It is called Powertalk and is a 2.5 Mb download. www.topica.com--Hosts a large number of features, such as e- mail and tips on how to use common software programs, e.g. Word 2000, Access 97, etc. You can sign up free and then select the information categories which interest you from the "Tips World" link. www.everyhit.com--Provides a fast-moving, up-to-date site on which you can ask questions about music and obtain answers, such as obtaining a list of any particular artist's single hits and the dates they were hits on. You can also do many other searches for details on albums, tracks, artists, etc, to find facts. ftp://ftp.mindspring.com/users/n8kl/nfbtr767.zip--Is the URL to download Version 7.67 of the free American Grade 2 Braille translation software. You can also download this free translation package plus a Windows user interface program called Wintrans from: www.wintrans-bt.org. www.ispreview.co.uk--Contains reviews of different Internet service providers to help you choose the best one for you. www.archive.org--Houses the Wayback Machine which is a web trawling and archiving program which takes a mirror image of the internet every two months and saves this as a kind of historic record or Internet library. To find a site as it was on a given day, you provide the URL of the site you want and from the table provided select the date you would like to go back to to obtain a copy of that site on that particular day. www.expita.com--Supplies a site where you can read much information about accessing the Internet by e-mail. It is the Access by Mail Website known as "accmail". www.e-accessibility.com--Provides a Website and monthly newsletter for VI persons, jointly supported by RNIB, NLB and GDB.* www.bookshare.org--Provides for US citizens an online community for scanning and sharing copyrighted books legally. Any book scans can be submitted for sharing by e-mailing the recognised scan and (preferably) the image scan. To obtain instructions on how to join, submit and discover what books are available for you to download send an e-mail to*: volunteer@bookshare.org www.192.com--Is the best site to find anyone in the UK. It searches databases of all phone books and electoral registers in the country. www.thefreesite.com--Provides one of the best Websites for locating freebies, whether promotional items, gifts by competition or computer software. www.jetform.com--Is where you can view and purchase a copy of an online and offline electronic forms completion program for VI people. It is called Verbal-Eyes and works with JFW 3.5 and Window-Eyes 3.1 upwards. http://validation.nlb-online.org--Holds over 70 high-quality reference resources, by three different providers, such as the Hutchinson Encyclopedia of Britain, Hansard and the Good Bed and Breakfast Guide. This same site also features a link to another reference resource called X-Refer with information available from Penguin Dictionary of Business, Dictionary of Law, Dictionary of Wine, Penguin Encyclopedia of Places, Collins Concise Dictionary of Quotations, Dictionary of British History, Penguin Dictionary of Psychology, Bloomsbury Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, New Brove Dictionary of Jazz, Dictionary of Shakespeare, Compact American Dictionary of Computer Words, etc. There is also the AEBSCO UK Reference Centre with over 300 full text archive newspapers and magazines such as BBC Gardener's World, the Economist, The New Scientist, Computer Weekly, The Guardian, The Rolling Stone, and the like. For more information and to get a username and password, phone Una Regan at the NLB on 0161 3552083 or e-mail to una.regan@nlbuk.org. www.redwhiteandblue.org/news/bonsmenu.htm--Hosts a site where you can find links to other blindness related sites and advertise and review accessibility products. You can also join the BONS (Blind Online News Service) weekly e-mail news letter which also contains links to other Websites with blindness-related subject matter.* www.howitworks.com--Is a site providing information of an IT nature, plus educational facts and coverage of PC games. www.gamesfortheblind.com--Is a blind-friendly site providing specialist games for the blind and a chat room called Accessible chat.* www.xe.com/ucc/--Contains a facility for you to type in a currency and have it converted into its up-to-date equivalent in another currency. www.tlorimer.btinternet.co.uk--Is where you can download several useful free and shareware programs, e.g. download managers, MP3 players, Web search engines, etc. It is maintained by Tom Lorimer who is himself blind. He has also created and made available a HTML Web page creation tutorial which can be downloaded.* www.blindhelp.comThis is where you can find a link to a messenger program which reads incoming messages. This program is called Talking Messenger. http://pages.sprint.ca/radioclicks/files/default.htm--This is where you can find a screenreader-friendly radio and vide stations playing site with media from dozens of countries and hundreds of stations.* www.register.co.uk--This is the UK information technology site to obtain up-to-date IT information specific to this topic. www.screenreader.co.uk--Contains a free Web page rendering program called Webbie for download. This makes Web pages easier to work with for some screenreader users by presenting the page like a word-processor document. www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/download--Is the Microsoft page where you can download a free copy of the latest version of MS Windows Media Player and other media-related software. www.drivershq.com--Contains links to every PC equipment manufacturer in the world, e.g. to download up-to-date drivers. http://members.fortunecity.com/mhunkin/marval_man/index.html-- Holds information on blind-related topics, accessibility information and links to music and entertainment stations (US based).* www.speedbit.com--A Website from which you can download a program called Download Accelerator to help speed up your downloads, allow you to recommence a cut off download, etc. www.morganauctions.co.uk--Is an Internet-based auction house for computer and some other electrical goods. www.shopsmart.com--Provides a place to search for best prices for goods. www.enablelink.com--Hosts information about disability aides, such as magnifiers and screenreaders. www.enablemart.com--This is another site for disabled people to access information, find out about screenreading programs, magnifiers and much more. www.audio-tips.com--Is the site of the 1-step vocal e-mail program for those who prefer to speak and hear e-mail. www.seti-search.com--Is where you can go to operate a Web-based search engine which was written to be used by blind people. www.bfmsoft.com/--Here you can find a useful shareware program named CD Wizard to play your CDs with and go onto the Net to search for information on that CD. www.airoboform.com--Is the site of a freeware online automatic forms completion program. www.dictionary.com--Hosts an American online dictionary for free use. If you use the URL www.dictionary.com/translate you can get languages translated for you. www.microsoft.com/enable/products/keyboard/keyboardsearch.asp--Is where you can find lists of keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft products all in one place. www.webopedia.com--This is an Internet-based encyclopedia of computer-related information and support. www.thescreenreader.org.uk--Provides a regularly updated FAQ file with answers to numerous questions about HAL in zip, text and HTML formats.* www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass--Contains a text-only page for browsing masses of historic, archaeological, and so forth, information held at the British Museum. The home page has a text-only link and screenreader and Braille display users, plus the ability to change font size, colour, style, etc, for partially sighted people.* www.192enquiries.com--Lets you search for business phone numbers. You can search on countries, towns, do a national search, search by trade group, etc. http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/lists.html--Lists over 12,000 English language books for free reading as full text on the Net. These texts have been compiled by the University of Pensylvania. www.recipeweb.co.uk--Provides cooking recipes from top UK chefs and nutritional advice. The ingredients, method and equipment needed are clearly listed. You can add a recipe to your online recipe book, e-mail a selected recipe to a friend or have it print out for you. www.useit.org.uk--Hosts information and links to Internet shopping, online texts, accessibility subjects, radio ham information, and so forth.* www.wingletang.com--Is a new site created especially for the use of visually impaired computer users. It has links to other sites of accessibility interest and is maintained by the hosts of the Whistler computer tape magazine.* www.windrivers.com--Boasts the Web's largest collection of drivers for all device types. It has a driver installation help link and you can register for their e-mail newsletter. www.download.com--Permits the free download of numerous freeware and shareware programs. www.amazon.co.uk--This is the site of an Internet-only shop, selling books, CDs, videos, and the like, which has an impressive selection. It has a text only link in the preferences at the bottom of the home page.* www.audiotips.com--Offers a voice chat room so that you can chat without having to use the keyboard. You will need a suitable sound card and microphone. www.forteinc.com--This is where you can download the very useful and keyboard-friendly newsgroups reader called Free Agent from. www.bigfoot.com--Is a service which provides a way to search for people and also gives permanent free e-mail addresses and sends e-mail from your Bigfoot address to your e-mail account. www.toad.net/~quinnbf--Is a site where a speech-friendly, Windows-based American football game can be downloaded from. www.acbradio.org/--Contains on stream radio listening programmes and blindness-related stories and information. The National Talking Express monthly magazine can also be listened to from this site.* http://bobby.watchfire.com--Provides a Website checker which will check the accessibility of sites for you and Webmasters in order to effect improvements for screenreader users.* www.webwasher.com--Allows you to download a free program called "Webwasher" which blocks or disables cookies. This will block advertising cookies but not those from sites which you might want a cooky from. www.mailwasher.com--Is the download URL for a good shareware e- mail cleaning program which allows you to eliminate spam and other types of unwanted e-mail. www.rnib.org.uk/library--Where Braille, large print and tape book readers can enjoin in joint discussions about these, where there are book reviews from around the world, new book releases, regular literature competitions, and the like.* www.efax.com--Is a site where you can register and be given a number to receive online Faxes. The Fax you are sent goes to your ISP server and is then appended as an attachment to an e- mail message for downloading to your PC together with the rest of your e-mail messages. www.digalo.com--This is a French site which offers what is said to be a good quality English SAPI software speech synthesiser for only around œ29.00. Other languages are also available and you can download MP3 files of the speech to check for quality and suitability. www.reelbooks.com--Permits the online purchase of over 60,000 book titles and belongs to Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind in Washington USA.* www.realnetworks.com--Is where you can download several software utilities from the Realnetworks site, such as the Realaudio Player program. www.music635.co.uk--Hosts up-to-date pop music news and single and album reviews. www.flatline.org.uk/silas--Provides an access gateway for blind and partially sighted surfers which converts Web pages into more usable formats.* www.spaceports.com/~mprobert/access/index.html--This is the site of an online British encyclopedia which is mainly text- based and easy to use from the keyboard. Mr Probert's encyclopedia can also be downloaded from: www.wilma.co.uk/book.html for free personal use.* www.netlingo.com--Provides an Internet language dictionary to help you understand Net terminology. www.bbc.co.uk/education/betsie/--Contains much educational and general BBC-related information and reviews and also the Betsie program which can be used by programmers to make Websites that are easier for visually impaired people to access.* csun.edu/cod/--Contains a "Virtual Exhibition Hall" with links to all the previous year's CSUN accessible software and hardware exhibitors sites. Just navigate to the "Virtual Exhibition Hall" link and press ENTER.* www.deja.com--Is a facility to search for online news information. www.alltheweb.com--Is a very prolific meta-search engine which runs on the Web rather than on your hard disk. www.tipworld.com--Is a source of computer and Net reference material. www.askjeeves.com--Is the site of a question-based Web search engine. www.sitesforwomen.com/--Contains several topics of interest to women in general, such as shopping, cookery, consumer rights, etc. www.ferretsoft.com--Hosts a suite of very useful utilities, downloadable free, such as the Ferret search engine and Ferret chat room finder. www.mudhut.co.uk--Features new music and new groups and contains a selection of downloadable music from new bands. www.prodworks.com--Is the Productivity Works site containing their dedicated speech-assisted Web browser called PWWebspeak.* www.dolphinuk.co.uk--This is the Dolphin Computer Access company's Website with company information and a free DOS screenreader called HAL Lite for download.* www.freeloader.com--Is another site for downloading many programs and utilities for free. www.web.csd.scarolina.edu/bck2skol/bck2skol.html--Is a site providing lessons for people new to the Internet. www.freestuffcentre.co.uk free software download site. www.annmorris.com--Is the US Ann MorrisEnterprises site where specialist equipment for the blind can be purchased.* www.cdnow.com--Is another Internet shop selling CDs which is US- based. www.fergusonenterprises.com--Provides the same type of service as Ann Morris above.* www.freebies4u.co.uk--Free download site for programs, utilities, demos, drivers, etc. www.highstreetcentral.co.uk/free.htm--Houses a directory of free download software sites. www.cs.queensu.ca/faqs/email/finding.html--Holds information on numerous avenues of Web search techniques. www.doherty71.freeserve.co.uk/yorkblind.htm--Is the York Blind and Partially-Sighted Society's website cataloguing many accessible attractions in the historic city of York. You can take a virtual walk along York's Bar Wall.* www.empowermentzone.com--Deals with many net and general software accessibility issues and holds a number of accessibility related files.* www.four11.com--Hosts a search tool to find companies and their addresses. www.zdjournals.com/w9p/9702/w9p9723.htm--Holds a thorough document about how to set up multi-boot computer systems. www.rnib.co.uk--Is the RNIBs Web page with news, services, etc.* www.wrn.org/audio.html--Provides a list of available audio books. www.cheapflights.com--Acts as a filter for people looking for bargain air flights, holidays, holiday insurance, etc, and can send you periodic e-mail showing last-minute bargains. www.go-fly.com--Is the site of an Internet flights booking company called "Go". www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk--This is a new site which went online in December 1999 which permits surfers to address health-related questions. It meets the accessibility criteria set down in the WAI standard.* www.gwmicro.com--GWMicro's Window-Eyes screenreader site.* www.kurzweiledu.com/kurzweil1000.html--Is where you can browse information about the Kurzweil OCR system and download a copy of the Kurzweil 1000 user manual.* www.dss.gov.uk/ba/index.htm--Contains benefit and other Benefits Agency information. www.thevillas.demon.co.uk--This is a site where second-hand specialist computer equipment can be bought and sold. www.officialdocuments.co.uk/uk.htm--Is the site of HMSO (now called the Stationery Office), where Hansard, Acts of Parliament and budget documents can be read and downloaded. www.henrichsen.org--Hosts many blind-friendly games and programs of interest for downloading.* www.scansoft.com--Contains downloadable software, including the 1998 version of the Textbridge OCR program for free. www.microsoft.com/enable/--Contains information and software for people with access needs.* www.gutenberg.net--Holds over 6,200 book texts for free download whose copyrights have expired. www.soundlinks.com/accessit.exe--This is the downloadable archive of the "Access IT" magazine from the RNIB with back copies up to the last three months. It is also where you can buy a copy of the IBM Home Page Reader from in the UK.* www.hoover.com--Is where you can search for companies, obtain share values, etc. www.convertafile.com--Is a site which can upload a file of yours and then convert it into any of 70 different formats for you. It then downloads it to you a few minutes later in the new format. www.mp3.com--Is a popular MP3 file (music) site where you can download free music tracks and also obtain free MP3 playing software, such as Winamp. FAQs and technical information are also available. www.wyfiwyg.com--Contains access technology for sale plus newsletters and computer information for the visually impaired.* www.netcore.ca/~imagic/--Provides talking books on line. www.google.co.uk--Provides an online meta-search engine which intelligently searches and lists its hits in order of importance/frequency of occurrence. www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk--Is the Inland Revenue's Website for tax information and to read and download tax forms. www.thisismoney.com/--This is a site containing information in respect of financial matters, stocks and shares, etc. www.yahoo.com--Is the site of the well-known Yahoo standard Web search engine. www.nexttage.com--This is a site where you can buy and sell anything (not just VI equipment) without going through the auction process. You state what you want to buy and how much you are prepared to pay and if any supplier is interested in selling at that price, he will e-mail you about this. www.winzip.com/--This is the site to download a copy of the famous Winzip software compression and decompression software. www.zdnet.com--Contains a safe site to buy software and download shareware and demos. It contains numerous things, such as holiday specials, PC sales, software, share investing, driver downloads, online shopping of all kinds, etc. www.freedomscientific.com--Henter-Joyce/Freedom Scientific's screenreader and magnifier Website. www.hotbraille.com--Contains a free Braille transcription service of up to 4 Braille pages. Your print copy will be translated and then posted free anywhere in the world. www.microsoft.com/enable/training/tips-u.htm--Is where a useful tips file is stored for disabled users of Internet Explorer.* www.itreviews.co.uk/maillist.htm--Will get you onto the mailing list of a site which is speech-friendly and holds many up-to-date software and hardware reviews. You can also register for a regular e-mail letter. www.assist.com--Is a site with good information in respect of assistive technology.* www.dti.gov.uk, www.homeworking.com and www.smarterwork.com are all sites containing valuable information for the self- employed. www.internic.net/wp/whois.html--Provides listings of Internet domain owners and associated information. www.jokerdog.com--Contains some free access games for use with JFW. www.futureforms.com--Is the place to find a Web forms reading and completion program for visually impaired persons.* www.indexbraille.se--Is a Website where you can obtain a free download of a Braille translation program for Index embosser owners. You must provide your Index embosser serial number.* www.raging.com--Hosts an online Web search tool. www.sunsite.berkeley.edu/alex/Where you can find a catalogue of on line electronic books. www.tucows.com--Holds thousands of files and software programs for free download. www.stroud.com--Same type of site as Tucows above. www.thtech.mit.edu/shakespeare/works.html--Is where you can find the complete works of William Shakespeare online. www.fsa.gov.uk/consumer-help--Offers advice on avoiding financial fraudsters and answers many of the commonest financial questions. It is run by the Financial Services Authority. www.enablelink.com--Enablelink is a Website run by De Witt and Associates solely about blindness issues. It covers technology, family life, reviews, assistive software and hardware sales, etc, and aims to create an online community.* www.altavista.com--Another Web-based online standard Web search engine. www.companies.online.com--Is where you can find information on lists of companies. www.nyise.org/whatsnew.htm--Covers Internet-related topics specific to visually impaired people.* www.wordweb.com--Is a speech-friendly Web-based dictionary and thesaurus. This is free of charge and you can obtain Window- Eyes set files for this from www.gwmicro.com www.screaming.net--A UK site where you can obtain a free ISP and charge-free Internet surfing. www.teddy.fcc.ro--Provides a Downloads link where, amongst other things, you can obtain a free file called Advanced PDF Password Recovery which removes all passwords on PDF files so that you can unlock and read them with the Adobe Acrobat Reader or any other software able to convert PDF files to other formats. 18.2. Website Resources Accessible by E-Mail Below are a couple of resources which you can access without going onto a Website, rather by directly e-mailing them. To access an e-mail database of thousands of online cooking recipes send an e-mail to: recipes@recipebyemail.com and in the subject line put the type of food you want specific lists of recipes on, e.g. pork. You will receive back in a few minutes a list of numbered pork recipe titles. When you have decided which recipe you would like to try, send another e-mail to: recipes@recipebyemail.com and on the subject line just type in the recipe number you want. The recipe will be e-mailed back to you within seconds. To convert a PDF file to a text file, attach the PDF file to an e-mail message and send it to: pdf2txt@adobe.com After which it will be returned to you by e-mail converted. Note: Since the end of 2002 Adobe's Acrobat Reader 5.1 has been available and Acrobat 6 has also been released in 2004. These have been written in conjunction with some screenreader manufacturers so that it will render and read PDF files correctly and easily with a screenreader, e.g Window-Eyes 4.1. To obtain a copy of Acrobat 5.1 go to the download page of: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/alternate.html By the time you come to use the above-mentioned pdf2txt conversion service, it is very likely that it will have been discontinued because of the additional conversion abilities of Acrobat 5.1 and 6X. ******** >APPENDIX 4 KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS IN INTERNET EXPLORER AND OUTLOOK EXPRESS The following list of Microsoft keyboard shortcuts may be useful for revision purposes or as a means of quick reference. The left- hand side of the two dashes below shows the keystrokes to press and the right-hand side of the dashes shows the effect of the shortcut. These are Windows general shortcuts and not any of the specialist shortcuts/hot keys provided by your screenreader maker, although some may overlap. To study your screenreader's own specific specialist hot keys, refer to that screenreader's help files and online manual. Additionally, for JAWS, Window-Eyes, Webbie and HAL, I have provided in sub-sections of Section 1 of this tutorial lists of some of the most important Internet-related hot keys. 13.1. Internet Explorer 5 and 6 F1--Displays Internet Explorer help or gives context sensitive help when on an item in a dialogue box. F5--Refresh the current Web page. F6--Moves you forward between frames. F11--Toggles between full screen and normal browser window view. UP ARROW--Moves you towards the beginning of the document. DOWN ARROW--Moves you towards the end of a document. END--Move to the end of a document. ENTER--Activate a selected link. ESCAPE--Stop downloading a page. HOME--Move to the beginning of a document. PAGE UP--Move towards the beginning of a document in large increments. PAGE DOWN--Move towards the end of a document in larger increments. SPACEBAR--Marks or unmarks a checkbox. TAB--Moves forward through the items on a Web page, the address bar and the links bar. ALT DOWN ARROW--Opens a drop-down listbox. ALT RIGHT ARROW--Takes you to the next page. ALT LEFT ARROW--Takes you to the previous page. ALT HOME--Takes you to your home page. ALT D--Takes you to the address bar. CONTROL CLICK--In History or Favourites bars, open multiple folders. CONTROL D--Adds the current page to your Favourites Menu. CONTROL E--Open search in Explorer bar. CONTROL F--Find on this page. CONTROL H--Open history in Explorer bar. CONTROL I--Open Favourites in Explorer bar. CONTROL L--Go to a new location. CONTROL N--Open a new window. CONTROL P--Print the current page. CONTROL S--Save the current page. CONTROL TAB--Moves you forward through frames on a Website with frames. CONTROL W--Close the current window. CONTROL SHIFT TAB--Moves you back between frames. SHIFT F10--Displays a shortcut menu for a link. SHIFT TAB--Moves backwards through the items on a Web page. 13.2. Outlook Express 5 and 6 Shortcut keys can be used to select commands and navigate through the Preview Window and the Message Window. The following shortcuts apply to both e-mail and newsgroups unless otherwise indicated. Main Window, View Message Window and Send Message Window: F1--Opens help topics. F5--Refreshes news messages and headers. ALT ENTER--Views the properties of a selected message. CONTROL >--Takes you to the next message in the list. CONTROL APPENDIX 5 GLOSSARY OF COMPUTER AND INTERNET TERMS 14.1. Glossary Active-X: An object-based Microsoft standard for computer program building blocks. Adware: Software displaying advertisements whilst you use it. ALT: An alternative system of Usenet newsgroups. Altavista: A World Wide Web search engine. Anonymous FTP: A way of getting onto an FTP Website by typing "Anonymous" as your username and your e-mail address as your password. Archive: A storage file(s) in a compressed format. ASCII (American standard code for information interchange): The most common way of representing characters in a computer (as plain text). Attachment: A file, such as from a word-processor, attached to the body of an e-mail and sent with it. AVI (audio video interleaved): A format devised by Microsoft to cope with the large size of digitised video by compressing it. Baud: The quantity of electronic symbols that a MODEM can send down a phone line per second. BBS (bulletin board system): An electronic bulletin board you dial up to read messages from and copy messages to. BCC (blind carbon copy): A person or place where a copy of your e-mail goes without other recipients knowing about it. Binary file: A file that contains more than just text. BIOS (Basic input-output system): This interfaces PC hardware to the operating system. BIT: the smallest portion of computer data. Bitmap: A picture constructed from small dots. BPS (bits per second): The speed at which data is transmitted, e.g. through a MODEM. Broadband: A high speed connection to the Internet, e.g. with a cable or ADSL modem. Browser: A program which lets you navigate around and read information on the Web. Byte: A block of eight bits. Cable Modem: High speed modem for data transfer use via cable television network systems. CC (carbon copy): A list of other people who also receive a copy of an e-mail. Client: A PC which logs onto and uses the services of a second computer, known as a server. CMOS (Complementary metal oxide semiconductor): The memory that stores a PCs hardware configuration. Communications Program: A software program which permits your computer to talk to another computer. Cookie: A piece of data placed on your computer by a website you have visited that lets that same site recognise you next time you visit it. Dial-Up Network: The TCP/IP provided with Windows 95 to get you connected to your PPP account. DLL (Dynamic link library): A shared subroutine library, used mainly by Windows programs. Domain: Part of the official name of a computer on the Net, e.g. onetel.com or freeserve.co.uk. Download: to copy a file from a computer on the Internet to your computer. Duplex: Full duplex is able to send data in both directions, e.g. copying to and from the Internet. Embedded link: A link situated within the text of a Web page and forming an integral part of the text (see "Link" below). EMS (Expanded memory specification): Additional memory above the conventional 640 K DOS limit. Eudora: An e-mailing program. FAQ (frequently asked questions): Answers to frequently asked computer questions. Fidonet: A network of BBSs throughout the world which have e- mail addresses. Firewall: A security system restricting the kinds of in and outgoing messages on the Internet via a specially programmed network computer. You can also get them for stand-alone computers, e.g. Zone Alarm. Freeware: Freely provided Computer software. Focus: The part of the screen which currently has the attention of the program. FTP (File Transfer Protocol): An Internet-based method of transferring files from one PC to another. Gateway: A method of connecting two networks which use different protocols via a computer. GIF (graphics interchange format): Graphics files and pictures. Gigabyte: One billion bytes or characters of information. Handle: A user's nickname. Header: The to, from and subject part of an e-mail message. Hardware: The solid, physical components of your computer and computer peripherals, e.g. hard disk, sound card, printer, scanner, etc. Highlighting: Highlighting (also known as "selecting") is the process in Windows of singling out or focusing attention on a particular word, line, paragraph, chunk of text, whole document, etc, to carry out a specific operation on, e.g. to delete, move, copy, change the case of, etc. Highlighting/selecting is done by holding down the SHIFT key whilst moving over the text you want to highlight with standard Windows keystrokes such as ARROWING up and down, holding CONTROL down and ARROWING left or right a word at a time, pressing the CONTROL key followed by the END key to highlight everything to the end of the document, etc, e.g. hold down the CONTROL and SHIFT keys and press the right ARROW key three times to highlight the three words to the right of the cursor and then press the DEL key to delete these three highlighted/selected words. Home page: The introductory Web page about a person or company. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): The computer language that Web pages are written in. HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol): The method by which Web pages are transferred over the Internet. IDE (Integrated drive electronics): Used with many hard disk drives which have most of the controller electronics inside the drive package. IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): Modern protocol for dealing with e-mail. Internet: A network of interconnected networks of computers which can communicate with each other. IRC (Internet Relay Chat): Provides the ability to speak to on another over the Internet in real-time. Inter-NIC: The Internet Networking Information Centre. Intranet: An internal microcosm of the Internet which uses browsers, etc, e.g. within a company. ISDN (integrated services digital network): A digital phone system which usually works at either 128 kilobits per second or 64 KBPS. JAVA: A modern computer programming language. Browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer can access sites written in JAVA but some specialist browsers for visually impaired people cannot, e.g. PWWebspeak and IBM Home Page Reader prior to Version 3.0. JPEG: A kind of image file frequently found on the Internet. Link: A hypertext place on a Web page where a mouse can be clicked or the ENTER key pressed to obtain more information from the current site or be taken to other sites on the Web. Links are underlined and normally highlighted in blue. Linux: A publicly-owned version of the Unix operating system with open source code. Listproc: A program which handles mailing lists. Listserv: A program which automatically handles and manages mailing lists. Lynx: A text-based Web browser. Mac-TCP: The Mackintosh's version of a TCP/IP. Mail server: An Internet computer providing e-mailing facilities. Mailing list: A method of mailing all incoming mail to a list of subscribers to the list. Majordomo: See Listserv. MAPI (Mail application programming interface): Microsoft's E- Mail standard. Megabyte: One million bytes or characters of data. MIDI: A method of transmitting music. MIME (multipurpose Internet mail extension): A method of e- mailing non-textual files. MODEM: Short for modulator/demodulator, it permits your PC to talk over the phone. Moderator: Someone who vets messages before sending them to an e-mail list or newsgroup. Mosaic: An old Web browser. MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group): This is a video file. MSN (Microsoft Network): A commercial means of accessing e- mail, the Usenet and the Web. Netscape Navigator: A Web browser. Network: Interconnected computers, known as a LAn (local area network) if they are in the same building or a WAN (wide area network) if the computers are further afield. Newsgroups: Subject areas on the Usenet. Newsreader: A method of reading and posting messages on Usenet newsgroups. Node: A host computer on the Internet. OLE (Object linking and embedding): A file or program which is embedded as an object in another file. PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association): Credit card sized computer accessories, such as a MODEM or network card. PDF file (portable document format): A text format for distributing files, which requires an Acrobat Reader program to access it. To convert a PDF file to a text file, attach the PDF file to an e-mail message and send it to: pdf2txt@adobe.com After which it will be returned to you by e-mail converted. Pine: An e-mailing program used with Unix. PKZIP: A DOS or Windows-based file compression program. POP (Post Office Protocol): A method of collecting your e-mail and downloading it to your PC from a mail server. PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol): A method of connecting your PC to the Internet via the phone line. Protocol: The accepted rules by which one computer communicates with another. Realaudio: A facility for listening to audio programs over the Net. SCSI (Small computer systems interface): An interface standard for connecting peripherals, including hard drives. Server: A computer that provides services to other computers, called clients, on a network. Shareware: A program provided on the understanding that if you keep it you pay the requested sum. SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol): See PPP. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): A system by which Internet mail is passed from one PC to another. Spam: The process of posting unwanted commercial material to a large number of Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists. Spyware: Programs designed to collect information from the user's computer and send it to someone else's computer without their permission or knowledge. Streaming audio: A downloaded sound file from the Net which starts playing before the download is complete, e.g. Realaudio. Tag: A tag is an instruction on a Web page which tells your browser how to display the text which follows it, e.g. the tag will make the following text bold. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): The method networks use to communicate with each other on the Net. Telnet: A program that lets you communicate with and log into other computers on the Internet as if you were actually sitting at that remote computer. Terminal: A method of connecting a screen and keyboard to a computer, as in terminal emulation, e.g. Windows 95 Hyperterminal. Text file: a file that contains text only and no graphics or pictures. Thread: A chain of related articles posted to a newsgroup. Trumpet: A Windows-based newsreader program. TSR (Terminate and stay resident): DOS programs that reside in memory so you can run them within other applications. TWAIN (technology without an interesting name): If a scanner complies with this standard you can run it from many windows, graphics and desktop publishing applications. Unicode: An advanced form of ASCII. Unix: A computer operating system. Upload: To copy files from your PC to someone else's computer on the Net. URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The addresses which link pages together on the World Wide Web. Usenet: A system of myriads of newsgroups. Virtual reality: A realistic 3-D representation of something. Virus: A program written to spread between computers and cause malicious damage to them. VOIP (Voice-Over-Internet Protocol): A means of phoning people using your phone handset but being connected over broadband Internet cabling rather than over a phone company's network. WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative): A Website creation standard outlined by the W3C group to ensure that Websites are accessible to people with disabilities such as the visually impaired. WAV files: Windows sound files ending in .wav. Webcaster: Someone who broadcasts programmes of music, talk shows, etc, over the Internet. Webmaster: A person who creates, designs and updates Websites with HTML. Web Page: Part of a Website which can be displayed on screen. Website: A collection of Web pages covering a particular topic. Windows Explorer: An Internet browser from Microsoft. Winsock: A way that Windows programs work with TCP/IP, e.g. connecting to the Internet via PPP. World Wide Web: An information system of millions of interlinked pages of information on the Internet which you can jump back and forward amongst, known as "surfing". XML (Extensible Markup Language): This is an up-and-coming, more advanced type of HTML which permits the exchange of information between computers in a way that preserves the structure of the information , e.g. between databases or exchanging data across the Internet. XML describes the data on a Web page, rather than just describing the look of the page. You could, therefore, copy a whole Web page into a spreadsheet, for instance, and immediately work with it. XMS (Extended memory system): The additional memory commonly used in memory in 80386 and 80486 PCs above the conventional 1 mb DOS limit. Yahoo!: A program with Web information and search facilities. ZIP: A file compressed with PKZIP or WINZIP which has a .zip extension. ******** >APPENDIX 6 OTHER Tutorials AVAILABLE FROM THIS AUTHOR 15.1. List of Tutorials with Brief Description of Each All of the below titles are available as plain text files as downloads from my Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard Tutorial titles and brief descriptions 1. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 1, covering Web and e-mail protocols, Web Search engines, navigating the Internet with Internet Explorer 5.0/5.5/6.0, e-mailing with Outlook Express 5.0/5.5/6.0, Downloading files and programs from the Net, using a range of Internet search engines, Joining Internet newsgroups with Free Agent 1.92, configuration and hints and tips for screenreader users, and much more. 2. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 2, covering hints and customisation, Download Managers, Online Auctions, Internet Chat Rooms, RealAudio, Internet Shopping and Internet Banking. 3. A selection of separate and individual manuals instructing visually impaired people how to use off-the-shelf print scanning/reading programs via screenreaders and the keyboard, including TextBridge Pro 98, TextBridge Pro 9 and Millennium, Omnipage Pro 10, 11 and 12, ReadIRIS Pro 6, TypeReader Pro 6 and Abby FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7. Each scanner tutorial is an independent manual in its own right. For example, the titles of the principal two of these scanner tutorials are entitled: "Using OmniPage Pro 10, 11 and 12 from the Keyboard to Scan Print" and "Using FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7 from the Keyboard to Scan Print". 4. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 1. This covers Easy CD Creator 4, Sound forge 4.5, Windows Media Player 6, Windows Recorder, Winamp 2.72, Freerip.mp3, RealPlayer 8 Basic, and much more. 5. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 2. This covers Winamp 5.0X, GoldWave audio editor 5.06, CDEX ripper 1.51, Basics of burning with Nero 5.5 and much more introductory and general sound-related information. 6. "Nero Burning-ROM Versions 4,5 and 5.5 from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 3.3 and Nero Media Player). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero Wizard, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 7. "Nero Burning-ROM 6 Ultra and Enterprise Editions from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 4). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero StartSmart interfaces, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions or folders to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, ripping sound files to MP3 or MP3 Pro files, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 8. "Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". This takes spreadsheet users from the beginner stages of Excel through much intermediate material and also covers a few more advanced features. It will give you the skills to use Excel for home accounting purposes, for keeping self-employed small business records and for use in the employment workplace. 9. "Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002/XP from the Keyboard". This is a tutorial instructing on how to use the richly-featured suite of programs which is a must for anyone seeking employment or wanting to do advanced e-mailing or calendar and other related tasks at home or at work. It covers all of the main features of MS Outlook and many other more technical topics. Covered is: E-mailing, Calendar, Journal, Tasks, Notes, Contacts, arranging appointments and meetings, searching, plus customising Outlook for visually impaired and blind users and appendices of Outlook general shortcuts and HAL, JAWS AND Window-Eyes hot keys and much more. 10. "Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". Available as a plain text file and instructs on how to use over 45 separate skills in these powerful leading word-processors for use at home or in the workplace to make you highly productive and efficient. ******** COMPLiMENTARY CLOSE Now that the second stage of this Internet odyssey is over, I hope that following these sections has not been too arduous but, having been through the Internet beginner's stage a few years ago myself, I understand just how confusing and inconsistent a place the Internet and World Wide Web can be. You are likely to have to revisit several of these sections before you become fully comfortable with using the Internet but remember that it is practise which makes perfect. Best Regards, John Wilson. ******** (End of file.)